Ahmedabad: With five balls left in the final over, Kolkata Knight Riders needed 28 runs, with a victory for Gujarat Titans looking imminent, especially after stand-in captain Rashid Khan took a hat-trick.
But Rinku Singh smashed five successive sixes on the last five balls off Yash Dayal to complete an improbable heist in the history of IPL and give Kolkata a memorable three-wicket victory at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
The fifties from B Sai Sudharsan and Vijay Shankar, including him smashing Lockie Ferguson and Shardul Thakur for five sixes and two fours in the 19th and 20 overs, yielding 45 runs overall, took Gujarat to 204/4 in 20 overs.
In reply, Venkatesh Iyer smashed 83 off 40 balls and shared a 100-run partnership off 55 balls with captain Nitish Rana to take Kolkata to victory.
But ‘ashid’s hat-trick in the 17th overturned the game in G’jarat’s favour before Rinku brought in another twist through his unbeaten 48 in a jaw-dropping display of strokeplay to seal a Kolkata win.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell to a short ball from Mohammed Shami in the third over, with short leg holding on to the catch and avoiding a collision with substitute keeper KS Bharat.
Josh Little sent back N Jagadeesan in the fourth over by having him pull straight to deep square leg.