Rinku Singh heroics complete extraordinary KKR heist

Singh smashed the five sixes required off the last five balls of the match to clinch victory over Gujarat Titans, who thought they were home and dry

Ahmedabad: Gujarat Titans 204-4, Kolkata Knight Riders 207-7 - Kolkata Knight Riders win by three wickets

An extraordinary finish from Rinku Singh gave Kolkata Knight Riders an unlikely, remarkable win over Gujarat Titans.

Entering the final over of the contest needing 29 runs for victory, Singh hit the last five balls of the match for sixes off Yash Dayal.

The first was carted over wide long-off, the second shovelled over square leg, the third – a third consecutive full toss – whacked over the off-side, the fourth clubbed over long-on. For the fifth, he repeated the dose by climbing into a short ball and hammering it over long-on to complete an outrageous comeback off the final ball of the match.

Singh, who had made 46 three days previously against Royal Challengers Bangalore, finished unbeaten on 48 from 21 balls, having dragged his side to the craziest of results after watching from the non-striker's end while Rashid Khan dismissed Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur for a seventeenth-over hat-trick that looked to have ended Knight Riders' chances at 155 for 7.

Venkatesh Iyer had just fallen for 83 to give Alzarri Joseph his second wicket of the afternoon as Kolkata, who had been well-placed to pull off a 205-run chase, appeared to be crumbling.

^{Rinku Singh was the hero for KKR (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP via Getty Images)}

Stand-in captain Nitish Rana had earlier smashed 45 from 29 balls, including 34 runs in boundaries, but in the three overs after his dismissal Gujarat Titans stamped their authority.

Earlier, Vijay Shankar had clobbered an unbeaten 63 off 24 balls, including five sixes, to close out Gujarat's innings in spectacular fashion as Titans racked up 204.

Sai Sudharshan anchored their innings with 53 off 38 balls after Wriddhiman Saha (17) and Shubman Gill (39) had given the reigning champions a solid, if unspectacular, start.

They could have been forgiven for thinking three quarters of the way through that they had done enough to secure victory, particularly when 29 runs were still needed off the last six deliveries.

But Umesh Yadav took a single off the first ball to present Singh with centre stage. Five balls later, he had his arms aloft, having pulled off an unprecedented heist.

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