Uncapped Indian batter Rinku Singh blasted five consecutive sixes in the final over as Kolkata Knight Riders chased down 205 to stun champions Gujarat Titans in an IPL 2023 thriller on Sunday. With KKR needing 29 off the final over, Rinku swung the game in KKR’s favour with his five sixes off Yash Dayal‘s bowling. Rinku remained unbeaten at 48 off just 21 balls as KKR won the match by three wickets in the end. After being hit for five consecutive sixes, a photo of Dayal’s reaction has been doing rounds on social media.
In the photo, Dayal was seen covering his face with a hand towel.
Yash Dayal couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Rinku Singh the artist! pic.twitter.com/iVSaW6PFLv
– Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 9, 2023
Earlier, KKR’s chase was set up by a 40-ball 83 by impact player Venkatesh Iyer, who put on a 100-run stand third-wicket stand with skipper Nitish Rana, who made 45.
Iyer, who came on in place of Suyash Sharma under the new impact player rule, fell to Alzarri Joseph and Rashid soon took over to claim his first Indian Premier League hat-trick in the 17th over.
Rashid, a champion leg-spinner who now has four hat-tricks in T20 cricket, went for a celebratory sprint after sending back Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur.
But little did Rashid know Rinku and KKR would have the last laugh.
After two straight wins, two-time champions Kolkata took second spot in the 10-team table, behind leaders Rajasthan Royals.
It was a first defeat of the season for Gujarat, who won the league in their debut campaign last year.
Earlier, GT’s Vijay Shankar smashed five sixes in his 24-ball 63 as Gujarat took 45 runs from the final two overs to reach 204-4.
(With AFP Inputs)
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