Vijay Shankar starred with the bat but, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) thrilling victory over Gujarat Titans (GT) on Sunday evening at the Narendra Modi stadium.
An India-discarded all-rounder, He clattered 63 runs off 24 balls, striking at a strike rate of 262! In his entertaining, jaw-dropping, and for many even unbelievable clean-hitting knock, Vijay walloped 4 fours and 5 stunning sixes.
The last three of those sixes came to the wily Shardul in the last over of Gujarat’s innings.
Vijay Shankar smacked Shardul Thakur for hat-trick of sixes
Thakur kept pitching on length and back of length as Vijay Shankar sat back and walloped a hat-trick of sixes in the last over of GT’s innings to take the team’s score to 204. He kept clearing his front leg and massacred Thakur’s length balls for big sixes – two powerful pulls and one smash down the ground to make a hat-trick of sixes.
Watch: Vijay Shankar’s hat-trick of sixes to Thakur
A hat-trick of MAXIMUMS, ft. @vijayshankar260 🔥 🔥
Relive those SIXES 🔽 #TATAIPL | #GTvKKR | @gujarat_titans pic.twitter.com/nnRwMh3LtJ
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 9, 2023
Rashid Khan takes hat-trick before Rinku Singh madness seals the game for KKR
Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana’s power-packed performances – the pair staged a stunning partnership of 100 (55) – with the bat kept KKR alive in their big chase of 205 but both their wickets put GT back in the game. Then Rashid Khan’s hat-trick – which included wickets of Russell, Narine, and Thakur – put GT in the driver’s seat, all but killing off the game.
With 29 runs needed off the last over, a win for GT was written. But Rinku Singh madness stole it from GT – with 28 needed off the last 5 balls, Rinku smashed Yash Dayal for 5 sixes in a row to clinch one of the most famous wins in the IPL history.
Playing XIs:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Suyash Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Rashid Khan(c), Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal
Kolkata Knight Riders substitutes: Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, David Wiese, Mandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer
