The last over started with 29 needed. Then it was 28 from five balls. Then followed carnage, and an unlikely Knight Riders win
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.