Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter Virat Kohli has applauded Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Rinku Singh’s amazing feat of hitting five sixes in five balls to win the match for his team against Gujarat Titans (GT) in the ongoing IPL 2023 tournament.
The match was played in Ahmedabad on April 9th and saw GT batting first and putting on 204/4 in 20 overs with Vijay Shankar scoring an unbeaten fifty and Sai Sudharsan also contributing a half-century.
In response during the end overs of the KKR chase, Rinku Singh was at the crease as 48 runs were needed in 18 balls and Mohammad Shami just gave away 5 runs in the 18th over. Then in the 19th over bowled by Josh Little, Rinku managed to hit a six and a four off the last two balls to bring the equation down to 29 runs in the last 6 balls.
Yash Dayal bowled the final over and Umesh Yadav took a single to bring Rinku on the strike. Rinku proceeded to hammer five sixes in a row to give KKR an astonishing win by 3 wickets in the last over.
Veteran India cricketer Robin Uthappa, on Jio Cinema, asked Kohli, before the start of RCB's third home game in IPL 2023 against Delhi Capitals, how the youngsters have fared in the season when the India star quickly touched upon Rinku's knock.
Kohli himself was at the crease when India was chasing 160 runs at the MCG in the T20 World Cup 2022 encounter and the Men in Blue needed 48 runs in 18 balls. Kohli then hit Shaheen Afridi for three fours in the 18th over, and Haris Rauf for two sixes in the 19th over to bring down the equation to 16 runs in 6 balls.
He then hit Mohammad Nawaz for a six off a no-ball and following which India won by 4 wickets against their arch-rivals.
During the conversation with Uthappa, Kohli admitted that he was left dumbfounded at the level of batting that the KKR star had put forth that night, something that was beyond his imagination.
"What the youngsters are doing today is amazing to see. Look at this IPL, I couldn't even think of doing stuff what these young guys are doing. Just the other night, Rinku Singh hits 5 Sixes in the last 5 balls which is amazing & never happened something like that. Coming in and hitting five sixes in a row to win a match, I mean what level is this? So that transition is happening is great. It is great to see such youngsters coming up," he said.
On Friday, Rinku almost repeated his feat of taking KKR to a win in a close situation with a brilliant 58* but KKR fell short by 23 runs while chasing a target of 229 against SRH.