By Ian Chadband
Rinku Singh became the toast of the Indian Premier League after smashing five sixes off the final five deliveries to seal one of the most miraculous wins the white-ball game has witnessed.
The Kolkata Knight Riders were chasing an unlikely target of 205 to beat the champion Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Sunday (Monday AEST), with Rinku left with the seemingly impossible task of scoring 28 off the final five balls of the match. Incredibly, he did just that, with five towering blows.
Rinku Singh and his Kolkata Knight Riders teammates celebrate their remarkable victory.Credit: AP
The Titans were in complete control after Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan again demonstrated his brilliance by claiming a hat-trick to leave Kolkata reeling at 7-155.
But with Kolkata needing 29 runs off the last over, the unfortunate Yash Dayal was handed the ball and, after giving up a single to Umesh Yadav, lost his nerve when he faced Rinku.
Umesh just told Rinku: “Hit it – don’t think!”
It proved sage advice. Three times the 25-year-old helped himself when Dayal served up full tosses. He then fetched the last two balls from outside off-stump over the long-on boundary to give Kolkata a three-wicket win.
Rinku Singh finished unbeaten on 48 from 21 balls.Credit: AP
“I was just trying to hit sixes. I was not thinking a lot, was just reacting to the ball,” said Rinku, who finished unbeaten on 48 from 21 balls after breaking the record for most runs by any batter in the final over of an IPL run chase.
“It kept coming out of the middle. I had belief and it came off in the end.”
His teammates were much more effusive about his heroics. Venkatesh Iyer, who hit a 40-ball 83, said: “Somewhere, we lost our way – but Lord Rinku saved the day!
“This teaches us that we should never give up until the last ball.”
KKR’s captain Nitish Rana said: “Out of a hundred matches, you will win one like this.”
Actually, it felt more like one in a million.
Kolkata’s extraordinary win in the early game always looked an impossible act to follow and so it proved for Australian Matt Short. His debut for the Punjab Kings in Hyderabad proved a disappointment after lasting just three balls, trapped lbw for one by the Sunrisers’ sharp South African paceman Marco Jansen.
The Adelaide Strikers star, the BBL player of the year who was snapped up by the Kings as a late replacement for Jonny Bairstow, came in at No.3 but was quickly on his way after hitting across the line.
Captain Shikhar Dhawan proved Punjab’s mainstay with an unbeaten 99 out of 9-143, but Hyderabad waltzed to victory by eight wickets, thanks largely to a brilliant 74 not out from Rahul Triphati.
Australian Nathan Ellis, player of the match first time out, this time found the going harder in the Punjab attack, being cracked for 28 off three wicketless overs.
AAP
