Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rinku Singh’s five consecutive sixes in the last over took the win away from Gujarat Titans at Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.
Despite taking the first IPL 2023 hat-trick from Rashid Khan, Rinku Singh’s last overperformance overshadowed the match.
After winning the toss, Gujarat Titans chose to bat where Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill opened the innings.
The openers started steadily against the Kolkata pacers; however, when spinner Sunil Narine was introduced in the fourth over of the match, Kolkata took their first wicket as Saha who was dismissed for 17 in 17 balls to a brilliant diving catch from N Jagadeesan. GT was 33/1 in 4.2 overs. Gujarat Titans got to their 50 runs mark in just 5.1 overs.
The duo of Sudharsan and Gill brought up the fifty-run partnership in just 30 balls. GT was at 88/1 after 10 overs; Gill at 36 in 27 balls and Sudharsan at 22 in 16 balls.
Just after GT reached their 100-run mark in 11.3 overs, Gill’s innings came to an end with Narine’s second wicket in 11.4 overs when Umesh Yadav caught him at long-on. GT’s opener was in 39 in 31 balls consisting of four boundaries. GT was 100/2 after 11.4 overs.
After 15 overs, Gujarat scored 132/3 with Vijay Shankar and Sudharsan batting on the crease. Sudharsan was batting at 46 in 31 balls and Shankar was batting at 2 in 3 balls.
Gujarat’s in-from batter Sudharsan clinched his second half-century of the IPL 2023 in 34 balls in 16.2 overs. With Sudharsan’s single in 16.4, Gujarat got to their 150 runs mark. Taking his three-wicket haul, Narine got the wicket of Sudharsan in 17.3 overs. Sudharsan performed prenominal scoring 53 in 38 balls bringing Titans to 153/ 4 balls.
With explosive batting, Shankar reached his fifty in just 21 balls with a six. And after the half-century, he hit two sixes in the next consecutive balls, making a hat-trick of sixes.
Gujarat ended their innings at 204/4 with the help of Shankar’s unbeaten 63 in 24 balls and David Miller’s unbeaten two runs in 3 balls.
KKR’s Venkatesh Iyer had played a brilliant knock 83 in 40 balls which brought Kolkata closer to the chase. Put to chase, Kolkata’s first wicket went early in the 3rd over as Mohammed Shami sent Rahmanullah Gurbaz back to the pavilion who was batting at 15 in 12 balls. Struggling after losing two early wickets, KKR had put 43 runs on the board with Venkatesh Iyer batting at 18 in 13 balls and Nitish Rana at 3 in 3 balls after the end of the Powerplay.
