‘A night to remember’: Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine onslaught in vain as Lucknow hold nerves to win sea-saw battle

Lucknow and Kolkata locked horns in the 66th match of the Indian T20 League 2022 at the D.Y Patil Stadium in Mumbai. Lucknow skipper KL Rahul won the toss and decided to bat first. Openers, Quinton de Kock and the skipper himself proved the decision right with an impressive show with the bat.They started slowly as they took the team to 44/0 at the end of the powerplay.

At that time, Rahul was batting on a run-a-ball 18 and De Kock was on 26 off 18 balls. The pair scored at more than seven runs per over till the ninth over. At the end of the over, the team was standing at 68/0. In the tenth over, the right-hander hit two sixes against Tim Southee. After this, there was no stopping the opening pair as they took the team to 210/0.

This is the highest opening partnership in the history of the cash-rich league. Also, this is the first time in the history of the tournament that an opening pair went unbeaten at the end of the first innings. De Kock scored 140 off 70 balls including 10 fours and as many sixes. On the other hand, Rahul scored 68 off 51 balls including three fours and four sixes.

Talking about Kolkata’s bowling, only Sunil Narine was economical while others had a poor day. In reply, the two-time winners had a poor start as Venkatesh Iyer (0) was caught behind by De Kock off Mohsin Khan. Two overs later, Khan took the wicket of debutant Abhijit Tomar (4) as he was caught at mid-on by Rahul. On 9/2, the likes of Nitish Rana and skipper Shreyas Iyer fought back and added 56 runs for the third wicket.

Rana scored 42 off 22 balls before he was caught at long-off by Marcus Stoinis off K. Gowtham. Sam Billings came in and added another 66 runs before the skipper was caught at deep midwicket by Deepak Hooda off Stoinis after scoring 50 off 29 balls. Two overs later, Billings (36) a was stumped out off Ravi Bishnoi. Russell (5) couldn’t do much as he was caught at long-off by Hooda off Khan. At 150/6, the team needed another 61 runs in 3.2 overs.

The likes of Rinku Singh (40 off 15) and Sunil Narine (21* off seven) launched an assault to put Kolkata ahead. However, the team just couldn’t cross the line and lost the match by two runs.

This is how Twitter reacted

Incredible opening partnership from this two classy players 👏👏 #QuintonDeKock #KLRahul #KKRvsLSG #IPL2022

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

Nitish Rana v Off Spin is the 10th fastest scoring Player v Bowling Type matchup in IPL history, going at 10.2rpo

— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) May 18, 2022

#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

Love this game of Cricket ❤️ so much #KKRvsLSG

— Surya Kumar Yadav (@surya_14kumar) May 18, 2022

Don’t think we will collectively get over that Evin Lewis catch for a long long time! 🙌🏼 #KKRvsLSG

— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) May 18, 2022

KKR knocked out of the playoffs race!

What a mad, mad game and it ends with LSG winning by 2 runs #KKRvLSG #IPL2022 https://t.co/OKHA8BBiSF

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) 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

Rinku, the gallant loser #KKRvsLSG

— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) May 18, 2022

a knight to remember#KKRvsLSG #IPL2022

— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) May 18, 2022

Heart goes out to Rinku Singh who played splendidly and got out to hell of a good catch. What a brave innings little boy. More coming in your way. #LSGvsKKR #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/DluymS27Cv

— Amit Mishra (@MishiAmit) May 18, 2022

What an amazing game. Congratulations @LucknowIPL on qualifying for the playoffs. Well played @rinkusingh235 👍 Evin Lewis catch was the difference #TataIPL #LSGvKKR

— S.Badrinath (@s_badrinath) May 18, 2022