A win looked impossible when Dinesh Karthik fell with Kolkata Knight Riders at 153/5 in 17 overs and needing 54 off the last three overs. But it takes an Andre Russell to turn the game around.
A second beamer of the innings from Mohammed Siraj, which the all-rounder hit for six, forced Virat Kohli to replace him with Australia's Marcus Stoinis. Then Russell smoked three sixes off the 18th over from Stoinis and took the chase in control.
Russell then took Tim Southee to the cleaners — hitting him for four sixes and a four in the penultimate over.
Kolkata went over the line with five balls to spare and Russell remaining unbeaten on 48 off 13 balls, which was studded with seven sixes and one four.
Russell has been dealing only in sixes in the IPL. His record reads:
The Russell special thus ended Virat Kohli and RCB's dream of registering its first win of IPL 2019 after five matches.
This is how Andre Russell won it for KKR:
Post the drubbing, RCB skipper Kohli said, "There is no guessing there on why we lost. The last four overs that we bowled was just unacceptable. We needed to be more clever, nothing came off and we just cracked under pressure."
Russell, on his part, said, "I was confident when I went out to bat. DK (Dinesh Karthik) was telling me to take a few balls to see how the pitch is behaving. I was watching in the dugout on TV and had a fair idea. When you need 68 off 20-odd balls, it doesn't happen everyday.
"The nature of T20 is such that one over can change the momentum. That's why I never give up. A part of me was saying that the runs needed were too much but I wanted to fight and eventually, we won with five balls spare.
"No ground is big enough for me I guess, I just trust my power. The hand-eye coordination is the key (for low full tosses) as they aren't easy to hit. I try short arm jabs as extending the arms can put you in trouble," he said.
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