IPL 2023: Rinku’s five sixes in last over powers KKR to improvable win

Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], April 9 (ANI): Kolkata Knight Riders' Rinku Singh five consecutive sixes in the last over took the win away from Gujarat Titans at Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.
Despite taking the first IPL 2023 hat-trick from Rashid Khan, Rinku Singh's last over performance overshadowed the match. Gujarat's Venkatesh Iyer had played a brilliant knock 83 in 40 balls which brought Kolkata closer to the chase.
Put to chase, Kolkata's first wicket went early in the 3rd over as Mohammed Shami sent Rahmanullah Gurbaz back to the pavilion who was batting at 15 in 12 balls. Irish bowler Joshua Little hit another blow to Kolkata by getting the wicket of Narayan Jagadeesan at 6 balls in 8 balls in 3.6 overs.
Struggling after losing two early wickets, KKR had put 43 runs on the board with Venkatesh Iyer batting at 18 in 13 balls and Nitish Rana at 3 in 3 balls after the end of the Powerplay.
At the end of 9 overs, Venkatesh and Nitish contributed fifty-run partnerships for Kolkata to come closer to a massive run chase.
KKR was at 86/2 in 10 overs with Venkatesh at 39 in 22 balls and Nitish at 25 in 18 balls.
Batting strongly in the middle, Ventakesh reached to his fifty-hitting boundary in 26 balls.
The duo of Ventakesh and Nitish accelerated their gears in the 12th and 13th over where Rashid Khan and Yash Dayal went expensive with 13 and 17 runs respectively.
Just after the impressive 100-run partnership of the duo, Gujarat made the comeback in the match when Little sent back Nitish, who was looking good scoring 45 in 29 balls.
Venkatesh went full out against Little in the 16th over as he hit one six and two four. Little went for 17 runs turning the table in Kolkata's favour.
Kolkata reached to 150-run mark reached in 15.2 overs.
In the 15.5 over, Gujarat got the valuable breakthrough of Venkatesh by Alzarri Joseph. Ventakesh scored a brilliant knock of 83 in 40 balls.
GT stand-in skipper Rashid Khan, with his exceptional bowling, took the first hat-trick of the IPL 2023 hitting Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur respectively. He firmed the position of the Titans in the game.
Rinku Singh by hitting five consecutive sixes did unprecedentedly and chased down the massive total put by the Gujarat Titans. Yash Dayal gave away the game by being hit for 31 runs in the last over.
Earlier, with an explosive batting by Vijay Shankar at the death over, after Sudharsan set the platform, Gujarat Titans posted a total of 204/4 against Kolkata Knight Riders
After winning the toss, Gujarat Titans chose to bat where Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill opened the innings.
The openers started steadily against the Kolkata pacers; however, when spinner Sunil Narine was introduced in fourth over of the match, Kolkata took their first wicket as Saha who was dismissed for 17 in 17 balls to a brilliant diving catch from N Jagadeesan. GT was 33/1 in 4.2 overs.
Gujarat Titans got to their 50 runs mark in just 5.1 overs.
After the powerplay, Gill was standing strong in the middles with 20 in 14 balls and he was partnered by Sai Sudharsan with five in five balls. GT was at 54/1 in 6 overs.
Duo of Sudharsan and Gill brought up the fifty-run partnership in just 30 balls. GT was at 88/1 after 10 overs; Gill at 36 in 27 balls and Sudharsan at 22 in 16 balls.
Just after GT reached to their 100-run mark in 11.3 overs, Gill's innings came to an end with Narine's second wicket in 11.4 overs when Umesh Yadav caught him at long-on. GT opener was in 39 in 31 balls consisting four boundaries. GT was 100/2 after 11.4 overs.
The 12th over started with a four against Umesh by Abhinav Manohar and to continue the rhythm, he hit two more boundaries in the next 2 balls.
Giving another blow to Gujarat's batting, youngster Suyash Sharma bowled out Abhinav with a cracking googly in his second over. Abhinav was at 14 in 8 balls consisting of 4 fours. Whereas, GT was at 118/3 after 13.3 over.
After 15 overs, Gujarat scored 132/3 with Vijay Shankar and Sudharsan batting on the crease. Sudharsan was batting at 46 in 31 balls and Shankar was batting at 2 in 3 balls.
Gujarat's in-from batter Sudharsan clinched his second half-century of the IPL 2023 in 34 balls in 16.2 overs. With Sudharsan's single in 16.4, Gujarat got to their 150 runs mark. Taking his three-wicket haul, Narine got the wicket of Sudharsan in 17.3 overs. Sudharsan performed prenominal scoring 53 in 38 balls bringing Titans to 153/ 4 balls.
Taking advantage of the platform set by the top batters, Shankar accelerated in the last second of the match punishing Ferguson for expensive 25 runs where he was hit by two sixes and two fours and one no ball.
With explosive batting, Shankar reached his fifty in just 21 balls with a six. And after the half-century, he hit two sixes in the next consecutive balls, making a hat-trick of sixes.
Gujarat ended their innings at 204/4 with the help of Shankar's unbeaten 63 in 24 balls and David Miller's unbeaten two runs in 3 balls
Brief score: Kolkata Knight Riders: 207/7 (Venkatesh Iyer 83, Rinku Singh 48, Rashid Khan 3/37) beats Gujarat Titans: 204/4 (Vijay Shankar 63*, Sai Sudharsan 53, Sunil Narine 4/33). (ANI)