'Namumkin Nahi Inke Liye Koi Kaam': Rinku Singh Shines Despite KKR's Loss to LSG

Lucknow Super Giants sealed their progress to the playoffs in the 2023 edition of the IPL with a thrilling 1-run win over the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.

Batting first, LSG made 176 for the loss of 8 wickets and managed to hold KKR to 175 for seven in 20 overs to edge out Shah Rukh Khan-owned side.

Despite the loss for the home side, Rinku Singh, KKR’s find of the season ensured that the game would go down to the wire with his electric unbeaten 67 runs off just 33 deliveries, which included six 4s and four 6s.

KKR skipper Nitish Rana won the toss and opted to put LSG into bat first as the Kolkata-based side got an early breakthrough in the form of a Karan Sharma wicket, who fell to Harshit Rana.

KKR bowler Vaibhav Arora struck twice in the same over after the powerplay as he dismissed Prerak Mankad and Marcus Stoinis in the seventh over of the game for 26 runs and a duck respectively.

LSG’s stand-in captain Krunal Pandya was scalped by Sunil Naraine for just 7 runs before spinner Varun Chakravarthy dismissed South African Quinton de Kock for 28 runs.

Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran put up a 74 runs stand before Naraine struck again and sent Badoni back to the pavilion for 25. Pooran brought up his half-century before falling to Shardul Thakur.

Shardul added another wicket to his tally as he also got rid off Ravi Bishnoi as Naveen-ul-Haq and Krishnappa Gowtham ended the LSG innings unbeaten at 2 and 11 runs respectively.

Chasing the target, KKR openers Jason Roy and Venkatesh Iyer put up a 61-run stand for the first wicket before Gowtham dismissed Iyer. Captain Rana was sent back to the dugout by Ravi Bishnoi for just 8 runs.

Roy was dismissed by Krunal after his knock of 45 runs, before Yash Thakur scalped Rahmanullah Gurbaz.

Rinku was the lone player, who stood up to the challenge and tried to take KKR all the way while wickets were tumbling around him as Andre Russell, Naraine and Shardul all fell cheaply.

However, his valiant innings went in vain as LSG edged out the Bengal-based franchise to take their tally to 17 points this season and qualify to the play-offs.