KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (KKR) held off a late onslaught from Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Riyan Parag to win by one run in a high-scoring IPL match on Sunday.
Chasing 207, Rajasthan slipped to 71-5 before Parag launched a counterattack, scoring 95 off 45 balls. He hit six sixes in six successive legal deliveries — a first in IPL history — across two overs.
The 23-year-old began his streak with five sixes off Moeen Ali. After a wide and a single from partner Shimron Hetmyer, Parag hit the next ball for six off Varun Chakravarthy.
Parag joined Chris Gayle (2012), Rahul Tewatia (2020), Ravindra Jadeja (2021), and Rinku Singh (2023) in hitting five sixes in an over in IPL history.
Parag, captaining in the absence of Sanju Samson, added 92 runs with Hetmyer. Rajasthan finished on 205-8 after a tense final over.
Needing 22 runs from the last six balls, impact substitute Shubham Dubey hit two sixes and a four off Vaibhav Arora. With three required off the final delivery, Arora ran out Jofra Archer as Kolkata celebrated the win.
"I was just too sad about myself getting out," said Parag. "Probably a miscalculation from my side. I should have finished it."
Kolkata recorded their fifth win in 11 matches and remain in contention for the play-offs. Rajasthan have already been eliminated from the top-four race. The top four teams will qualify for the play-offs.
Andre Russell scored an unbeaten 57 off 25 balls to help Kolkata post 206-4.
In the second match of the day, Punjab Kings beat Lucknow Super Giants by 37 runs in Dharamsala.
Prabhsimran Singh hit 91 off 48 balls as Punjab made 236-5. Several cameos supported the total.
Arshdeep Singh took 3-16 to restrict Lucknow to 199-7. Rishabh Pant scored 18 off 17 balls with two fours and a six.
Pant, bought by Lucknow for $3.21 million in the November auction, has now scored 128 runs in 10 innings this season.
Lucknow are seventh in the table with three matches left and trail the fourth spot by four points.
"The dream is still alive," said Pant. "If we can win the next three matches, we can definitely turn around and do amazing things."
Punjab moved up to second place with their seventh win of the season, behind Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Lucknow’s chase faltered early after Arshdeep dismissed Mitchell Marsh for a duck and Aiden Markram for 13 in the same over. He later removed Nicholas Pooran for six.
Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai dismissed Pant and David Miller, who scored 11, leaving Lucknow at 73-5.
Ayush Badoni top-scored with 74, and Abdul Samad added 45 in a partnership of 81, but they could not prevent the defeat.
(With inputs from agencies)
