Kolkata Knight Riders 207 for 7 (Venkatesh 83, Rinku 48*, Rana 45, Rashid 3-37, Joseph 2-28) beat Gujarat Titans 204 for 4 (Vijay 63*, Sai Sudharsan 53, Narine 3-33) by three wickets
This is what they mean when they say truth is stranger than fiction.
Chasing 205, Kolkata Knight Riders' Impact Player Venkatesh Iyer and their captain Nitish Rana had kept them in the game by adding 100 runs 9.1 overs. Alzarri Joseph dismissed both, and then Rashid Khan picked up a hat-trick to kill the contest. At least that's how it appeared.
But, just then, Rinku Singh rose to the occasion. When Knight Riders needed 39 off eight balls, Rinku was on 8 off 14. He hit the last two balls of the 19th over, bowled by Josh Little, for a six and four.
With 29 required from the last over, ESPNcricinfo's Forecaster gave Knight Riders a 1.29% chance of winning. After all, no team had chased down that many in the 20th over of a T20 game. The previous best was 23, by Sydney Sixers against Sydney Thunder in 2015, and Rising Pune Supergiants against then Kings XI Punjab in 2016.
Umesh Yadav took a single off Yash Dayal's first ball, and then Rinku went 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 to script a win that will be talked about for a long, long time.
Knight Riders' opening woes
In Rahmanullah Gurbaz and N Jagadeesan, Knight Riders had their third opening pair of the season in as many games. In fact, since the start of IPL 2022, they have used nine different opening pairs in 17 matches - Delhi Capitals are second with five, also in 17 games - and have had starts of 30 or better only twice. It was no different on Sunday. Mohammed Shami and Little, who came in as an impact substitute for B Sai Sudharsan, removed Gurbaz and Jagadeesan inside four overs with just 28 on the board.
Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana threaten to take the game away
Knight Riders finished the powerplay on 43 for 2. The field restrictions were lifted, but Iyer and Rana didn't have a problem in sending the ball to the boundary, or over it. Iyer hit Dayal for a four and six in the seventh over. In the next, Rana smashed Joseph for two sixes.
Rashid's first two overs went for 23. Sandwiched between them was a 17-run Dayal over. With 77 needed from seven overs, Knight Riders were well and truly alive, before Joseph's double-strike to remove both set batters tilted the game towards Titans.
Rinku trumps Rashid's hat-trick
Rashid had conceded 34 in his first three overs, but he almost won the game for his side with his final over. Knight Riders needed 50 from four overs with Andre Russell in the middle. It looked like Rashid had kept his one over only for Russell - he had dismissed him four times in 38 balls before this game. And with his first ball, he had Russell caught behind off an inside edge that bobbed up off the pad. Narine hit the next to deep midwicket, and Shardul Thakur was lbw off the third to give Rashid his record fourth hat-trick in T20 cricket. All three wickets came from googlies.
Rashid seemed to have sealed the game. Except Rinku had other ideas. With 28 needed from five balls, Dayal lost control. The next three balls were full tosses, and Rinku dispatched them over long-off, over deep-backward square leg, and again over long-off.
After a chat with Rashid and David Miller, Dayal bowled a back-of the-hand slower one into the pitch only for Rinku to clear long-on. With four needed from the last ball, another meeting was called, with Shubman Gill too joining in this time. Dayal bowled the last one short and outside off and Rinku hit it over his head. Even before the ball had cleared the boundary, Rinku took off in celebration, running towards his team-mates, who had rushed on to the field to embrace him.
Shubman Gill gives Titans strong powerplay
The day started with Rashid, standing in for the unwell Hardik Pandya, opting to bat after winning the toss. After a slow start, Wriddhiman Saha was looking to accelerate. He had hit a boundary in each of the previous three overs, but Sunil Narine neutralised that threat. Saha tried to slog-sweep, only to top-edge it towards deep midwicket where Jagadeesan, running backwards, took an excellent catch.
That left Titans 38 for 1 after five overs. Varun Chakravarthy, though, bowled a touch too full and Gill caressed him for back-to-back fours through extra cover. Varun's over also included five wides, which helped Titans finish the powerplay at 54 for 1.
Sai Sudharsan's fifty keeps Titans afloat
Gill and Sai Sudharsan took Titans to 100 in the 12th over, but Narine didn't let Gill convert his start into a big score, having him miscue one to long-on for a 31-ball 39. Titans sent in Abhinav Manohar at No. 4 to provide some impetus. He hit Umesh for three successive fours before Suyash Sharma cut short his innings, breaching his defence with a googly.
Titans seemed to be eyeing 180, and Sai Sudharsan kept them on course for that. Apart from hitting a six each off Narine and Varun, he also ran four twos and a three, and brought up his fifty in 34 balls. It was his second successive fifty, having scored an unbeaten 62 off 48 balls against Capitals. But, looking for quick runs, he holed out to long-off off Narine in the 18th over.
Vijay Shankar has a party
Titans were 159 for 4 after 18 overs. Vijay Shankar had his eye in by then and had moved to 22 off 13. Then he brought out his biggest hit, smashing two fours and two sixes off Lockie Ferguson before launching three successive sixes off Shardul Thakur. The last two overs of Titans' innings produced 45 runs; 41 of those came from Vijay's bat. In all, Vijay scored 63 not out off 24 balls, hitting four fours and five sixes along the way, to haul Titans past 200. It was not enough on the night.
