Rinku Singh's name will be indelibly etched in IPL folklore. What the left-handed batter achieved on April 9 (Sunday) happens only once in a hundred attempts. But for Rinku, that one moment transpired at the biggest stadium in the world when all eyes were on him and after almost everyone had given up on the idea of a miracle. The left-handed batter made the miracle happen with outrageous stroke-making that ended up in a fairytale ending. Rinku became immortal by smashing five consecutive sixes in the last five balls of the match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Gujarat Titans (GT).
KKR needed 29 runs off the final over of the match and then this happened:
Ball 1: Umesh Yadav took a single which brought Rinku back to the striker's end.
Ball 2: Rinky made space for himself and hit Dayal for a six over extra cover.
Ball 3: Dayal followed it up with a full toss that was deposited over the backward square leg boundary for a six.
Ball 4: Dayal erred again and the full toss was hit over the long-off boundary.
Ball 5: Dayal bowled a short-of-a-length ball that was picked by Rinku and flat-batted over long-on.
Ball 6: KKR needed four off the final ball and Rinku smashed it over long-on to seal a famous win for KKR.
In the end, Rinku remained unbeaten on 48 runs off 21 balls and Dayal was left distraught.
After the game, the KKR franchise shared a video on its social media handle where regular captain Shreyas Iyer, who is currently injured, can be seen on a video call with match-winner Rinku and Nitish Rana.
This is how the conversation went:
"Bhaiya, kaise ho? (How are you, brother?) God's plan!" Rinku said on the video call.
Iyer realized by saying, “Rinku bhaiya zindabad (Long live Rinku!).”
Nitish then jumped into the conversation and said, "“Dekh raha tha ki nahi? Yaad aa rahi hai teri (Did you watch the innings? We are missing you)."
Talking about Rinku, the left-handed batter is a product of the KKR Academy. His contract of Rs 55 lakh may not justify what he pulled on an adrenaline-filled Sunday evening but he always had a hunger for it since his under-19 side for Uttar Pradesh.
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