Surrey’s new Vitality Blast overseas signing Sunil Narine has sustained a career as one of the world’s best T20 players for more than a decade.
A mystery spinner who is dangerous with the bat anywhere in the order, Narine has played 51 times for West Indies and won titles in some of the biggest T20 leagues in the world including the Indian Premier League and Caribbean Premier League.
Surrey will be the 33-year-old’s first English county, although he did represent Oval Invincibles in last year’s edition of The Hundred; when he sampled our famous atmosphere.
Here we take a look at some of the memorable performances that have made Narine’s career to date.
Tickets are now available for every match in this year’s Vitality Blast, priced at £1 for U16s and from £24 for adults.
Kolkata Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata, 2012
In just his third match in the competition, Narine proved his star quality with 5/19 against a star-studded Kings XI side.
Those figures included the wickets of Australians Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh, and remain his best haul in the format to date.
He was eventually named the tournament’s Golden Player after his KKR team lifted the trophy.
West Indies v New Zealand, Basseterre, 2012
Narine’s stand-out ODI figures included the wickets of New Zealand’s biggest guns; Brendon McCullum, Kane Williamson & Martin Guptill. He ended with 5/27 and earned the Man of the Match.
While footage of this match isn’t readily available, you can see the level he was performing at that year during the Australia ODI series.
T20 World Cup final, Colombo, 2012
His final incredible performance of 2012, the year he won the ICC’s Emerging Player award, came in the final of the T20 World Cup against hosts Sri Lanka.
With just 137 to defend, Narine was the star man with the ball – claiming figures of 3/9 from his 3.4 overs including the wickets of legendary batter Mahela Jayawardene & dangerous lower order players Nuwan Kulasekara & Lasith Malinga.
Only Marlon Samuels’ heroics with the bat denied him the Man of the Match for that game.
Tickets are now available for every match in this year’s Vitality Blast, priced at £1 for U16s and from £24 for adults.
West Indies v South Africa, Providence, 2016
His best ODI figures of all-time and one of the best individual moments in a year that saw him named in the ICC ODI Team of the Year.
His wickets included Surrey man Hashim Amla, top order player Rilee Rossouw and former Surrey men Chris Morris and Imran Tahir.
Trinbago Knight Riders v Barbados Tridents, Port of Spain, 2017
His best ever performance in terms of total runs scored in an T20 fixtures, Narine made 79 from 45 balls while opening the batting in a team that included Brendon McCullum, Colin Munro, Dwayne Bravo and Shadab Khan.
He hammered six fours and five sixes to take his side to the win and earn the Player of the Match.
West Indies v Afghanistan, Basseterre, 2017
Another Player of the Match performance and this time against a team who know a thing or two about facing spinners. Narine posted 3/11 from his four overs here to keep the visitors to just 110, which his side chased down comfortably.
Tickets are now available for every match in this year’s Vitality Blast, priced at £1 for U16s and from £24 for adults.
Oval Invincibles v Trent Rockets, Kia Oval, 2021
An Oval Invincible in 2021, Narine sampled some of our ground’s atmosphere before he gets the full effect for this year’s Vitality Blast.
His figures of 3/11 from his 10 balls included both Trent openers and world-renowned T20 batters D’Arcy Short and Alex Hales, as well as Tom Moores.
Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sharjah, 2021
When it matters most! 4/21 and 26 runs from 15 balls earned him the Player of the Match accolade in this Eliminator fixture just a few months ago.
These weren’t just the wickets of also-rans too. Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers were all removed by our new man.
Comilla Victorians v Chattogram Challengers, Mirpur, 2022
Taking just 13 balls to raise his bat, this is the fastest half-century in Bangladesh Premier League history. He went at a whopping strike rate of 356.25 with boundaries from 11 of his 16 balls in total.
Tickets are now available for every match in this year’s Vitality Blast, priced at £1 for U16s and from £24 for adults.
