Ahmedabad: Kolkata Knight Riders pulled a rabbit out of their hat at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad when they defeated Gujarat Titans by 3 wickets on Sunday. Rinku Singh proved to be the hero for his side smashing 5 sixes in the last over when the team needed 29 to win off 6 balls. The match swayed one way and the other with all results possible till the last ball of the match but Singh showed great composure under pressure to deposit the final ball of the over for a maximum and with the match for his side.
Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders were asked to field first by Gujarat Titans in the first match of the double-header on Sunday. However, they ended up conceding 204/4 in their 20 overs with Sai Sudharsan (53 off 38) holding the GT innings together before Vijay Shankar, who was playing in place of an unwell Hardik Pandya in the Playing 11, scored 63 runs off 24 ball to propel Gujarat past 200.
In the run-chase, Kolkata were right in it thanks to their Impact Player Venkatesh Iyer who scored 83 off 40 balls. However, the match seemed to have slipped away from them when in a crucial phase of the game, the team lost Iyer. Not much after, GT's stand-in captain who had gone for a few runs earlier in his spell, took a hat-trick in his final over of the spell, removing Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur off successive deliveries to put Gujarat on top.
Even though a Gujarat win seemed certain at this stage, Rinku was still looking for a win. Gujarat trusted Yash Dayal with the final over and with 29 needed off 6 balls when the left-handed batter smashed the first of the five-sixes even the commentator on air said that it might not come on a winning cause. Dayal failed to find the right length and was punished by a determiend Rinku who came back only after the team had won, finishing on an unbeaten 48 off 21.
Rashid returned with figures of 3/37 and Alzarri Joseph picked 2 for 27 but Dayal would want to forget this night as soon as possible, going wicketless in his four overs having conceded 69 runs.