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Cricket World Player of the Week - Rinku Singh

©CWM

KKR's Rinku Singh created ripples all around the cricketing fraternity as he smoked five consecutive sixes in the last over to take Kolkata to a thrilling last-ball win over Gujarat Titans.

Only four batters have hit five sixes in an over in the IPL. Universe Boss Chris Gayle was of course the first one to do it when he got stuck into Rahul Sharma back in 2012. Rahul Tewatia meted out this explosive treatment to Sheldon Cottrell in 2020, and more recently, Ravindra Jadeja smoked five sixes off Harshal Patel in the last over of the innings in 2021

KKR's Rinku Singh has become the fourth batter to join the club after he took Gujarat Titan's Yash Dayal apart, successfully chasing down an almost impossible figure of 29 runs in the final over to take Kolkata to a thrilling win.

After brilliant knocks from Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer, the pendulum shifted completely in GT's favour when stand-in captain Rashid Khan struck a hat-trick on the back of Alzarri Joseph's double blows. Against the run of play, Rinku emerged from nowhere to pull off the heist.

The 31 runs scored by KKR are the highest by any team in the 20th over to win a men's T20 run chase. The previous best was 23 -- scored by Sydney Sixers against Sydney Thunder in 2015, and by Rising Pune Supergiants against Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in 2016.

The Uttar Pradesh-born deservedly walked away with the Player of the Match award after he sent the KKR fans, and cricket fans at large, into a frenzy -- pulling a rabbit out of the hat when almost nobody expected the 25-year-old to do so.