‘Rinku Singh, the gallant loser’: Lucknow survive the Rinku storm to beat Kolkata in a sea saw battle

Kolkata faced Lucknow in the 66th match of the Indian T20 League 2022 at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. The viewers witnessed superlative batting effort from the openers of the Lucknow team. But Kolkata fought till the end and thus gifted the spectators a thrilling contest to witness.

Lucknow won the toss and decided to bat first in the match. The openers of the team justified the decision in every way possible. Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul started the innings steadily and got themselves settled in the middle. The duo scored 44 runs in the first six overs. After this Quinton de Kock started shifting gears slowly while Rahul played the role of an anchor in the partnership. On a slowish pitch where a total of 170 looked like par one, the duo displayed excellent batsmanship and posted a mammoth total on the board. In an epic effort, they put together 210 runs on the board staying unbeaten for the 20 overs. In the process, they knocked down many a record. Quinton de Kock remained unbeaten 140 runs off 70 deliveries whereas Rahul scored an unbeaten 68 off 51 balls. The records they broke in the partnership are:

• Highest opening partnership in ITL 2022 (previous best: 182 by Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad vs Hyderabad)
• Highest opening partnership in the history of ITL- (previous best 185 by Jonny Bairstow and David Warner vs Bangalore in 2019)

Quinton de Kock’s 140 is also now the highest individual score by a wicket-keeper in Indian T20 League history. The previous best was by KL Rahul (132* vs Bangalore in 2020)

In reply to the big target set by Lucknow, Kolkata was rocked early by Mohsin Khan. Khan dismissed Venkatesh Iyer (0 of 4) and Abhijeet Tomar (4 0f 8) within the first three overs. They were reeling at 9 for 2 when Nitish Rana began counterattacking the Lucknow bowlers. Rana was dismissed for 42 off 22 balls by Krishnappa Gowtham in the 8th over but not before he has provided his team with the much-needed momentum. When Rana walked back to the pavilion Kolkata was 65 for 3 down in 7.1 overs. His efforts were carried forward by Shreyas Iyer and Sam Billings. They increased the scoring rate steadily and started to catch up with the required rate. But Stoinis provided Lucknow with the all important wicket of Shreyas Iyer (50 of 29) in the 14th over of the innings. After the 15th over of the innings Kolkata was 134 for 4 needing 77 runs off 30 balls. The target looked tough but Kolkata was placing all there stakes on Andre Russell.

Iyer was soon followed by Sam Billings (36 of 24) and from their on the sole responsibility of takin Kolkata over the line was on Andre Russell. But Mohsin Khan (3 for 20 from 4 overs) once against played an important role picking up Russell in the 17th over of the innings. With his dismissal the match was more or less sealed for Lucknow. But Rinku Singh and Sunil Narine had other plans. Singh played a blinder of a knock scoring 40 runs of 15 balls and was aided by Narine (21 0f 7). With 21 runs required of the last over Rinku Singh picked up 18 runs of the first 4 balls, but in an extraordinary turn of events Marcus Stoinis picked up two wickets of the last two balls and Lucknow prevailed in the match by 2 runs. Kolkata ultimately stopped at 208 runs for the loss 8 wickets. This was Kolkata’s 8th loss of 14 matches and thus they bow out of the tournament. Lucknow on the other hand finished their league stage with 9 wins in 14 outings.

Here is how Twitter reacted during the match. 

Seen quite a few hundreds in the IPL but this one by Quinton De Kock was extremely pleasing to the eyes.
Well batted!!!! #ipl #LSGvsKKR

— Mohammed Azharuddin (@azharflicks) May 18, 2022

Innings Break!

What a show #LSG openers put up with the bat. Post a formidable total of 210/0.#KKR chase coming up shortly.

Scorecard – https://t.co/NbhFO1ozC7 #KKRvLSG #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/QgoflG8V0o

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 18, 2022

https://twitter.com/Vinay_Kumar_R/status/1526951951774015488?s=20&t=YRx0WfW-zlfb_qRc2sfjMQ

After two bad games, LSG have come storming back with a thunderous 200-plus partnership between de Kock and Rahul. Aided by some sloppy fielding by KKR.

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 18, 2022

https://twitter.com/Vinay_Kumar_R/status/1526948755248848896?s=20&t=YRx0WfW-zlfb_qRc2sfjMQ

https://twitter.com/sthalekar93/status/1526948204633157632?s=20&t=YRx0WfW-zlfb_qRc2sfjMQ

https://twitter.com/chopraanjum/status/1526957556320505857?s=20&t=YRx0WfW-zlfb_qRc2sfjMQ

#KKR not throwing in the towel. Great batting by Nitish Rana. We could be headed for a tight finish

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 18, 2022

What a game….#KKRvsLSG

— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) May 18, 2022

KKR and Russell check out, on the couch with MI and CSK now.

— Gaurav Sethi (@BoredCricket) May 18, 2022

a knight to remember#KKRvsLSG #IPL2022

— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) May 18, 2022

Rinku, the gallant loser #KKRvsLSG

— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) May 18, 2022

Guess we all agree on Rinku Singh’s smile, his fielding, his bat swing, his affection for Nitish Bhaiya.

— Gaurav Sethi (@BoredCricket) May 18, 2022

https://twitter.com/gauravkapur/status/1526983854040678400?s=20&t=YRx0WfW-zlfb_qRc2sfjMQ

What a Rockstar innings by Rinku and out of the world catch by Lewis.. this game is turning to be a cracker!! #KKRvsLSG #IPL2022

— Vinay Kumar R (@Vinay_Kumar_R) May 18, 2022

https://twitter.com/gauravkapur/status/1526983268440358912?s=20&t=YRx0WfW-zlfb_qRc2sfjMQ

Can’t believe these scenes, can anyone smack the ball better? Can anyone catch it better? #EvinLewis superb! #KKRvsLSG #IPL2022

— Reema Malhotra (@ReemaMalhotra8) May 18, 2022