Rinku Singh engineered one of the greatest finishes in T20 cricket as the Kolkata Knight Riders batsman hit five sixes off the last five balls of the match against Gujarat Titans on Sunday to pull off a thrilling win in the IPL.
Chasing 205, Kolkata seemed down and out at 155-7 following stand-in captain Rashid Khan's hat-trick in Ahmedabad.
However, the left-hander turned the chase on its head with an unbeaten 21-ball 48 to seal a three-wicket win.
Kolkata needed 29 from the final over off left-arm seamer Yash Dayal. Rinku took strike after Umesh Yadav's single on the first ball to send five hits over the fence and silence a raucous home crowd.
The chase was set up by a 40-ball 83 by impact player Venkatesh Iyer, who put on a 100-run third-wicket stand with skipper Nitish Rana, who made 45.
Rinku, 25, capitalised on three full tosses to clear the ropes before smashing the final two balls from outside off stump over the long-on boundary to secure victory.
"I was just trying to hit sixes. I was not thinking a lot, was just reacting to the ball," said Rinku, who was named player of the match.
"It kept coming out of the middle, I had belief and it came off in the end."
Rinku set a record for most runs by any batsman in the 20th over of an IPL run-chase.
"Rinku played unbelievable shots and credit goes to him for the way he played and for the way he finished," Titans captain Rashid said.
Earlier, Gujarat’s Sai Sudharsan (53) continued to impress at No 3.
Sudharsan scored his second successive half century and built a solid platform for a big total by adding 67 runs with Shubman Gill (39). Narine was the pick of Kolkata's bowlers with 3-33 before Vijay Shankar powered Gujarat to a strong 204-4 with 63 not out off only 24 balls.
