Late on Sunday evening, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) grabbed the headlines after Rinku Singh was their unlikely hero against defending Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. With 29 runs needed in the last over of the match, the diminutive batter hit five consecutive sixes to etch his name in history books.
Coming off Yash Dayal's over, Rinku snatched the victory from the Titans' grasp, after Rashid Khan's hat trick ended their prospects of chasing down a mighty total of 205 runs.
The Afghanistan star and stand-in skipper took the wickets of the dangerous duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, and then the wicket of Shardul Thakur, the hero of KKR's last match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Rinku finished the match with 48 runs off 21 balls, including 30 runs off the final over of the match. This was after his 46 runs in 33 balls against RCB in their second match of the season.
After the win against RCB, Yash Dayal ironically shared a comment on the post Rinku shared after the match. Rinku had captioned the post "Memorable victory. Lots of love to all the fans who came in huge numbers to watch the match and support us," to which, the Titans pacer replied, "Big player brother".
Rinku Singh replied with an emoji of the heart. And it was fate that he had to smash 5 sixes off his friend's bowling.
While the plaudits were directed towards Rinku for his phenomenal batting, and rightly so, the Kolkata-based franchise also spared a thought for Dayal and posted a heartwarming message for the young pacer.
"Chin up, lad. Just a hard day at the office happens to the best of players in cricket. You're a champion, @imyash_dayal, and you're gonna come back strong," KKR wrote on Instagram.
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