IPL: Rinku Singh hits five sixes off last five balls to script miracle for KKR
Kolkata Knight Riders 207 for 7 (Venkatesh 83, Rinku 48*, Rana 45, Rashid 3-37, Joseph 2-28) beat Gujarat Titans 204 for 4 (Vijay 63*, Sai Sudharsan 53, Narine 3-33) by three wickets
Rinku Singh hit five successive sixes in the final over of a remarkable Indian Premier League game to lift Kolkata Knight Riders to victory over Gujarat Titans.
The heroics came after a stunning hat trick from Rashid Khan gave Gujarat command as they attempted to defend 204-4.
Rashid’s dismissals of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur seemingly left KKR’s innings in tatters, and they needed 29 from the last six balls.
Umesh Yadav hit a single off the first ball of the over, putting Rinku on strike and setting the stage for him to lift the Knight Riders to an incredible three-wicket win by bludgeoning Yash Dayal in a sensational display of batting that will live long in the memory.
A half-century from Sai Sudharsan (53) and Vijay Shankar’s unbeaten 63 saw Gujarat set a testing target.
Venkatesh Iyer then played the lead role for much of the chase, with his 83 helping KKR to 154-3 in the 16th over.
But he was caught at long-on, off the bowling of Alzarri Joseph, and Rashid ripped through the middle order in a magnificent 17th over.
Rinku was the pillar of the middle order that remained, and he gave KKR a glimmer of hope with 10 runs from the final two balls of the penultimate over.
The target still looked likely to be beyond KKR, but Rinku snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in a spectacular finale, completing an astonishing turnaround by pummelling Dayal over long-on.
Rashid hat-trick in vain
Gujarat’s loss was their first in the opening three games of the season, but Rashid could hardly have done more to aid their cause.
He had Russell caught behind from a googly before Narine hit out to deep midwicket, with Rashid then returning to the googly to complete his hat-trick by trapping Thakur lbw.
Rinku to the rescue
Rinku was the hero for KKR, but he got a big assist from Dayal with some below-par death bowling.
His full toss-laden final over got the treatment it deserved from Rinku, who hammered maximums over long-off, deep backward square leg, and his final two over long-on as he finished off a historic rescue act.
Rinku’s 30 runs are the most by any batter in the 20th over of an IPL game in a run chase, while his five sixes over the ropes saw him tie Ravindra Jadeja for the most in the final over of any IPL innings. (SportsMax)
