Rinku propels KKR to win against GT

Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rinku Singh slammed five consecutive sixes to pull off a sensational three-wicket win over Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League here on Sunday. Needing 29 runs off the last over, Rinku slammed left-arm pacer Yash Dayal for five sixes on the trot to register a last-ball victory. Rashid Khan led from the front and returned with impressive figures of 3 for 37, while Alzarri Joseph (2/27) picked up two wickets, but all their efforts went in vain. Venkatesh Iyer made 83 off 40 balls for KKR while skipper Nitish Rana played a fine 29-ball 45-run knock. Rinku played the knock of his life and struck one four and as many as six hits over the fence to seal a famous win for KKR. Earlier, electing to bat, GT rode on Sai Sudharsan and Vijay Shankar’s fifties to post a mammoth 204 for four. Hardik Pandya missed the game as he is unwell and in his place Rashid led GT. Sudharsan made a 38-ball 53 while Shankar scored an unbeaten 63 off just 24 balls. Besides Sudharsan and Shankar, opener Shubman Gill made 39. For KKR, Sunil Narine picked up three wickets by giving away 33 runs. Nitish Rana, KKR captain: We had a little belief. Rinku did something like this last year, although we didn’t win that match. When the second six was struck, we started believing more because Yash Dayal wasn’t executing that well. As a captain, it’s important to have the belief. But this is a 1 in a 100 chance for something like this to happen. We were good with the ball except the last two overs. Same thing with the bat – that over from Rashid put us on the back foot. Credit goes to Rinku Singh. The two points we have from this game are thanks to him. People asked me why Rinku Singh doesn’t get a bigger role, and always plays a small role. I want to say to those reporters if this is the second role, imagine what he can do with the first role. Last match he played a different role, and he did it well. To be honest, if I was batting and needed 30 off