Rinku earned a brand new moniker ‘lord’ from his teammate after he smoked 5 successive sixes within the last over to take his group house within the last-ball thriller on the Narendra Modi stadium. Rinku remained unbeaten on 48 off simply 21 balls, hitting as many as six maximums in his whirlwind knock.
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“It was a nail-biting finish, extremely happy that we won the game. Our coach has always said that we can score 200 on any given day. Honestly, the wicket was quite good to bat. When the target is 200, you can’t have silent overs. I was just trying to execute my plans,” Iyer mentioned after the match.
“Me and Nitish had a good partnership. Unfortunately, somewhere we lost our way but Lord Rinku saved the day. To be honest, we still believed that we could win. This teaches us that we should never give up until the last ball.”
Iyer mentioned the victory might be a “great morale-booster” for the group.
“We want to make winning a habit. I haven’t been in great form. Tonight, I went out and played as late as possible. The bowlers were quick and I tried to use their pace, and that worked to my advantage,” mentioned Iyer, speaking about his 55-ball 100-run stand with KKR skipper Nitish Rana (45) for the third wicket.
Gujarat Titans’ stand-in skipper Rashid Khan, who took the primary hat-trick of the season, additionally praised Rinku for enjoying an impressive innings when all odds have been stacked towards his aspect.
Rinku got here in when KKR wanted 56 off 30 balls, however Rashid’s hat-trick nearly sealed the sport within the favour of Gujarat Titans.
However, the left-handed batter didn’t quit, hitting 5 sixes off as many balls from Yash Dayal within the last over after hitting Josh Little for a six and a 4 within the last two deliveries of the penultimate over.
“It’s a tough game for us, especially for me as a captain. You need 30 plus in the last over, the same thing happened for us last year when we won. We will learn from it, more importantly a good game of cricket and the fans would have loved it. It was more about what he is most comfortable with, to trust his (Yash Dayal) plans,” Rashid mentioned.
“Rinku played unbelievable shots and credit goes to him for the way he played and for the way he finished. Keep it simple, hit the right area consistently and that’s what T20 is all about.”
Rashid mentioned at instances even scores of 250 usually are not protected along with his aspect dropping the sport on Sunday night having scored 204/4 batting first.
“As a bowler I’m always trying to hit the right area. We got what we wanted. We wanted 190 and we got 200.
“As a bowling unit we bought sufficient to defend, however typically in T20 even 250 doesn’t look good. Take positives from this, it is nonetheless early within the competitors and study from it,” he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com