IPL 2023: Rinku Singh nearly pulls off another heist as LSG edge KKR out in last-ball thriller, enter playoffs

Rinku Singh nearly did it again!

The pocket-sized dynamite almost pulled off a repeat of the miracle that he had performed for Kolkata Knight Riders against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad last month after launching an all-out assault against the Lucknow Super Giants in Kolkata on Saturday.

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Rinku had smashed five sixes off left-arm seamer Yash Dayal at the Narendra Modi Stadium on 9 April to guide KKR to one of the most memorable victories in the rich history of the Indian Premier League (IPL). This time around, he was facing a different ‘Yash’ — right-arm pacer Yash Thakur — with the objective of scoring 21 off six deliveries. And once again he was off strike at the start of the 20th, and only got back to the striker’s end with a single off the first ball.

Though he conceded a couple of wides under pressure, Thakur ensured the job became nearly an impossible one by bowling two dots in the first half of the over, leaving Rinku needing to smash three consecutive sixes to pull off another heist. Rinku did collect two maximums, only for them to be separated by a four that came off a drive through the extra cover region.

The left-handed batter, playing against the team that is based in his native state of Uttar Pradesh, remained unbeaten on 67 off 33 deliveries — his highest score in the IPL and also one of the best knocks of his career.

Read | First reaction is satisfaction, says Krunal as LSG enter playoffs

But there was only so much Rinku could’ve done to almost single-handedly salvage a win for his team when the Knight Riders once again threw away good starts and dished out an otherwise sub-par performance that has been the hallmark of their campaign in the 16th season of the league, where they finish at the seventh spot in a 10-team table.

Pooran to the rescue

Lucknow’s performance in what was the final game of the season at the Eden Gardens wasn’t very different from what they dished out in a similarly close win over Mumbai Indians at home earlier this week.

LSG got off to a slow start after being invited to bat by the opposition captain; the decision to bring Karan Sharma back into the lineup hardly paid any dividend as he was the first to depart, succumbing to a short delivery from Harshit Rana.

Opener Quinton de Kock briefly tried reviving the innings with a solid second-wicket partnership with Prerak Mankad worth 41, only for Vaibhav Arora to strike twice in the seventh over, removing Mankad and hard-hitting Australian Marcus Stoinis in the same over, the latter departing for a two-ball duck.

Kolkata then had Lucknow on the mat as spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy removed skipper Krunal Pandya and de Kock respectively, reducing them to 73/5 shortly after the halfway mark.

Despite the procession to the dugout, Nicholas Pooran’s arrival at the crease would’ve instilled the LSG camp with hope and sure enough, the West Indian did not hesitate in taking the attack to the opposition right away, as he had done numerous times in what has been one of his better seasons in the IPL.

Chakravarthy removed de Kock at the start of the 11th over; Pooran arrived at the crease and went four, four and six in his first three deliveries to announce himself at the centre and instantly push Chakravarthy and the Knight Riders to the backfoot.

A Pooran-packed half-century by the charismatic Caribbean