Kolkata Knight Riders preserved their hopes of making it to the IPL 2025 playoffs with a thriller win over Rajasthan Royals on Sunday at Eden Gardens.
Choosing to bat first, KKR accumulated a total of 206/4 in 20 overs, with Andre Russell taking the charge, hitting an unbeaten 57 off 25 balls. Rajasthan Royals were almost in the process of producing a miraculous win, but KKR held their nerve to edge out a narrow one-run win.
The pick of RR's players was their skipper, Riyan Parag, who smashed a phenomenal knock of 95 off 45 deliveries, keeping his side in the hunt throughout most of the run chase. Parag had a moment of magic in his innings when he smashed six straight sixes, becoming the first batter to do so in IPL history. In the 13th over, five sixes by Parag off Moeen Ali accumulated 32 runs for the over. In the very next over in the 14th, he hit another six off Varun Chakravarthy, finishing his incredible sequence of six consecutive sixes.
This was especially significant for Parag because two years ago, prior to the commencement of IPL 2023, he had posted a message on X (formerly Twitter), in which he had fantasized about hitting four sixes in an over.
"My inner conscience says I'm hitting 4 sixes in an over at some point this IPL."
— Riyan Parag (@ParagRiyan), March 14, 2023.
Fast forward two years, and Parag exceeded his own expectations by hitting six consecutive sixes.
Even his incredible performance could not save RR from the embarrassment of defeat, as they had already been knocked out of contention in the playoffs. Parag summed up the defeat in the post-match ceremony, conceding a miscalculation in their strategy.
"I was thinking of staying until the last two overs, but unfortunately, I got out in the 18th over. It was a calculation gone wrong on my part. I feel that we could have done better in the last six overs. Perhaps we could've done something differently with the bowling. There's no one to blame but ourselves; we should have finished it. Looking back, we could have done things differently," he said.
Describing Russell's batting, Parag added, "He (Russell) was 2 off 10 balls, and the manner in which he picked up the pace thereafter was fantastic to see. This is a wicket where sixes are struck with ease, and though the wicket was slightly tricky, I had to choose my battles. I feel I did well, till the time I got out. It's difficult for me to conduct an interview as the losing skipper, but we weren't clinical on the field, and the price is here."
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