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Kolkata Knight Riders batter Rinku Singh’s bat with which he smashed Gujarat Titans for five consecutive sixes in the last over to win in a dramatic fashion, was reluctantly given to him by his captain Nitish Rana.
“This (the one Rinku used) is my bat and I played both matches (this season) with this bat. I have played the entire Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and the last four to five matches of last year with this bat,” Rana said in a post on the team’s Twitter handle.
“Today (Sunday) I changed my bat. Rinku asked me for my bat. I didn’t want to give him my bat initially, but somebody brought this bat (from dressing room).
“I had a feeling that he would pick this bat because it has a very nice pickup and according to my weight this bat is light. So (now) this bat belongs to Rinku, not me.”
With Kolkata needing 29 runs to win off the last over, Umesh Yadav took a single off the first ball off Yash Dayal. Rinku slashed at a full-toss outside off-stump to send the ball sailing over the long-off boundary. The next delivery was another full-toss, a lower one on leg-stump and the left-hander flicked it over behind deep square-leg.
An under-fire Dayal was clearly feeling the pressure now as he darted in another full-toss outside off and Rinku once again cleared the long-off fence to make it three maximums in a row. Dayal adjusted his length but, after being guilty of bowling full-tosses in the previous deliveries, now pitched it too short. Rinku pounced on a loose one outside off-stump and launched it over long-on.
The equation came down to four runs needed off the last ball. Dayal pitched it short again and Rinku pumped it down the ground for a fifth consecutive six as a stunned Gujarat Titans was handed its first defeat of IPL 2023.
Rinku finish with an unbeaten on 48 off 21 balls.
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