India’s latest batting sensation Rinku Singh smashed a boundary off the final delivery to hand Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) a dramatic five-wicket win over the Punjab Kings in the 53rd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Monday.
KKR started the last over needing six runs and Arshdeep Singh almost turned the game in Punjab favour with a tremendous effort where he conceded only four runs from the first five deliveries.
The cynosure of all eyes was on Rinku as KKR suffered a severe blow when the aggressive Andre Russell was run out for a whirlwind 42 in the penultimate ball while attempting to steal a single.
But the 25-year-old left hander held his nerves and threw his bat at the last ball for the match winning boundary behind square leg to steer KKR for their fifth victory in this IPL season.
This was after West Indian all-rounder Russell had added 52 runs for the fifth wicket from 27 balls with Rinku as the pair brought the KKR to the cusp of victory through some powerful hitting.
He hammered three sixes as 20 runs came off Sam Curran’s 19th over to bring the equation further down while Rinku hoisted one six and struck two boundaries during his 10-ball 21 not out.
Chasing a target of 180, KKR started on a brisk note and reached 52 for one in the Powerplay, as Jason Roy, employed as the Impact Player, setting the tone with a flurry of boundaries.
Skipper Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer were associated in a 51-run third wicket stand and they took Kolkata past the 100-run mark before Russell and Rinku stepped up to add the finishing touches.
Earlier, Skipper Shikhar Dhawan led from the front with a 41-ball half century before Shahrukh Khan and Harpreet Brar produced fireworks towards the end to power Kings to a challenging total.
Shahrukh and Brar struck lusty blows to add 40 runs from 16 balls during the death overs and take Punjab Kings to an impressive 179, which was however, insufficient to defend in the end.
Chief scores
Punjab Kings: 179/7 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 57, Jitesh Sharma 21, Shahrukh Khan 21 n.o, Harshit Rana 2/33, Varun Chakravarthy 3/26)
Kolkata Knight Riders: 182/5 in 20 overs (Jason Roy 38, Nitish Rana 51, Andre Russell 42, Rinku Singh 21 n.o, Rahul Chahar 2/23). C.D.
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