Ganguly surprised with Narine's batting

[caption id="attachment_41743" align="aligncenter" width="580"]CI1I7052 Need to start trusting Narine's batting skils, says Gambhir[/caption] Kolkata: KKR mystery spinner Sunil Narine performed with both bat and ball to help the Kolkata Knight Riders to clinch a convincing 8 wickets win at the Eden Gardens. Narine gave just 19 runs in 4 overs and bagged one crucial wicket during KXIP innings and after that scored a quick fire 37 runs in just 18 deliveries as Gambhir’s opening partner on Friday. The West Indian spinner bagged the Man of the match trophy too. According to Narine the wicket of the Eden Gardens has totally changed compared to last few years and the key for success here is just to do the basics right. “It (the wicket) is completely different. Just need to do the basics right, keep it wicket-to-wicket and not give the batsmen any space,” said Narine after the post match press conference. Narine was happy that his knock helped his team to win and the team management wanted him to open the batting. “It came off today. Sometimes it does not, but today it did. I opened there (BBL) and they (team management) wanted to try,” Narine concluded . The move to open the batting with Sunil Narine turned out to a masterstroke and Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir went on to say that he needs to start trusting the West Indian spinner also with the bat. "This is a beautiful wicket to bat on and we had some quality fast bowlers. Umesh Yadav coming back made it easy for us," said Gambhir after the eight wicket win over Kings XI Punjab. On Narine, he added: "I need to start trusting Narine with the bat now. He is a quality bowler, and the leader of the attack irrespective of the conditions. "Narine can hit the ball big, we have a long batting line-up, and so we sent Sunil in at the top. He won't face many balls at No. 9 anyway." Gambhir ended up making 72 off 49 balls while Narine smashed 37 off 18 balls to set up the big win. KXIP captain Glenn Maxwell said he was not surprised with Narine batting the way he did. "I thought we had a chance with 170, the ball was swinging and seaming. We had an extra quick. I was not surprised by Narine opening the batting, he has done it in the Big Bash," said Maxwell. "They got away from us and that opening partnership basically took the wind out of us. One poor over where we lost three wickets, then we lost our way. We will have to regroup for Delhi," he added. Former India skipper and CAB president Sourav Ganguly was surprised to see Narine's batting at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. Ganguly had  no idea that Narine can open for his side too. "I didn't know that Narine can open too. This shows the Kolkata Knight Riders are a very good side and I am very happy that they had won today," said Sourav. Unlike the other years, fast bowlers got a lot of help today at the Eden Gardens. Star pacers Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma lauded the Eden pitch, as it was helping the pacers. Regarding the Eden pitch Ganguly said," The wicket at the Eden Gardens has always been good and it produces great matches every time,".