The gargantuan Narendra Modi Stadium proved to be too small and an asking rate of 29 too less for Kolkata Knight Riders' Rinku Singh, who hammered five consecutive sixes to seal a miraculous three-wicket win over Gujarat Titans in the IPL here on Sunday.
Just when it seemed everything was lost for KKR after wily Afghanistan spinner and stand-in captain Rashid Khan had taken a hat-trick in the 17th over to reduce KKR to 155/7, Rinku (48 not out off 21 balls) did the Houdini Act to eke out one of the most memorable wins in the history of the Indian Premier League.
KKR needed 29 runs in the final over to attain the winning target of 205. Umesh Yadav took a single to give the strike to Rinku, who looked like a genius with the bat.
It seemed like he was waving a magic wand, which could fetch him a maximum at his beck and call. With 28 needed off the last five balls, Rinku took the aerial route on all five deliveries to conjure up magic hardly ever seen before in an IPL game.
Even as a wave of jubilation spread in the KKR camp, the Titans dugout went silent.
Venkatesh Iyer was the other hero for KKR on the day. Before Rinku unleashed his full fury to silence the crowd and leave the Titans fielders looking skyward, the 28-year-old Madhya Pradesh batter made a real 'impact' and brought KKR to the doorstep of victory with a smashing 84 off 40 deliveries, as the two-time IPL champions looked set to chase down the 200-plus target.
The left-handed batter's 100-run partnership with captain Nitish Rana (45 off 29 balls) was the cornerstone of KKR's massive fight-back and came days after both the batters had failed in their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens on April 6.
Putting the disappointment of scoring just three runs in the previous game on the back-burner, Iyer — who came in as an 'Impact Player' for Suyash Sharma — took the stadium by storm, unleashing eight fours and five sixes, leaving the Titans baffled.
Iyer came to the crease at fall of Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who was picked ahead of England opener Jason Roy, and he regaled the packed stadium with his lusty hitting.
Iyer's dismissal in the 16th over, following an Alzarri Joseph yorker that cramped him for space and he ended up hitting it straight to Gill at long on, sent a wave of jubilation in the Titans camp.
Rashid, who was leading the team in the absence of an unwell Hardik Pandya, then weaved magic in the 17th over, dismissing the dangerous West Indian middle-order batter Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur off the first three deliveries of his last over to virtually seal the win. But he had no inkling about Rinku's plans. And when it unfolded, it spelt doom for the Titans.
Earlier, a captivating batting display from Gujarat Titans' Vijay Shankar, a fine half-century from young top-order batter Sai Sudharsan saw the defending champions put on a formidable total on the board.
Sudharsan, who had scored an unbeaten 62 against Delhi Capitals in the previous match, struck 53 off 38 balls, studded with three boundaries and two maximums, while Shankar took just 24 balls to score an unbeaten 63, embellished with four boundaries and five sixes, as the Titans made hay.
Young Shubman Gill too came to the party, scoring a feisty 39 and sharing a 67-run partnership with Sudharsan before he was dismissed by West Indian spinner Sunil Narine.
The maturity Gill and Sudharsan displayed after opener Wriddhiman Saha had departed early, dismissed by Narine for just 17 runs (17 balls), helped the team overcome the early setback and take the total to 100 runs without losing any further wicket.
The pair's half-century stand laid the foundation and by the time Gill departed, holing out a length delivery from Narine at long-on in the 12th over, he had put the Titans well on course for a big total.
The left-handed Sudharsan flourished from the moment he arrived at the crease at the fall of Saha. He kept picking up handy runs, including a six, as the pair kept the scoreboard ticking.
The best part about the partnership was that the pair kept rotating the strike, taking singles at the first opportunity to keep the opposition on tenterhooks.
Gill's dismissal, which came as a big blow, brought in Abhinav Manohar, who plundered three consecutive boundaries off Umesh Yadav in the 13th over. But his cameo 14-run innings off just eight deliveries was brought to an end by Delhi teenager Suyash Sharma, whose googly ripped through the gap between the bat and pad to dismiss the batter.
