From Quinton de Kock to Rinku Singh – KKR vs LSG encapsulated IPL’s wonderful madness – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

As KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock stepped onto the DY Patil Stadium to open the innings, commentator Pommy Mbangwa said something not-so-odd. “Let’s hope this is a good game,” he exclaimed, introducing the clash between Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders.

It was a peculiar setting – Lucknow didn’t have much to gain, except perhaps the second spot in the points’ table and some winning momentum heading into the knockouts. For Kolkata, there was a bit more on the line — win the game, get to 14 points and maybe, just maybe, there would be an odd mathematical chance to qualify. This differentiation in approach went on to define the best game of the 2022 Indian Premier League season.

LSG’s Marcus Stoinis celebrates after taking wicket of the last ball of the match against KKR during IPL 2022 match 66 in Mumbai on Wednesday. Sportzpics

One has to start with de Kock and Rahul. Along with Ishan Kishan-Rohit Sharma, it is the only unbroken opening pairing in this season’s IPL. And the gap in results is humongous to say the least – the Mumbai duo has scored 636 runs in 13 games together. The Lucknow pairing smashed 210 in a single innings on Wednesday night. Overall, they have notched up 1039 runs in 14 innings together – it explains the chasm between the table-standings for Lucknow and Mumbai.

There isn’t much surprise in how Lucknow’s pairing has performed. Even before a ball was bowled in the 2022 IPL season, de Kock-Rahul could be counted as the best opening combination in the competition. Rahul is an indomitable force in white-ball cricket now – there is no shot he cannot play, no bowling attack he cannot shred to bits, and the only hiccup sometimes is his mental approach, not so much strike-rate. For de Kock, free from the pressure and expectations of red-ball cricket, this was always going to be a breakout franchise cricket season.

The IPL is spectacular precisely because it brings two batsmen of such quality together, and asks them to put on a show. For Rahul, it is about stepping up further, perhaps overtaking David Warner in consistency and almost matching Jos Buttler for impact. Batting with Rahul, you are bound to get over-shadowed and for much of the season, de Kock was happy to stay in the background despite consistent performances. 362 runs in 13 innings aren’t bad when Rahul is kicking it up a notch, and Lucknow’s top-order was producing the desired results.

Wednesday was different because the roles were reversed, and the duo played to the gallery perfectly. De Kock walked out and teed off – every in-form batsman finds that sweet spot some day and to Kolkata’s dismay it came on a must-win occasion. The mishits landed just ahead of the boundary; otherwise anything from the bat kept sailing past the rope. At the other end, Rahul was content knocking the ball around and watching the blistering hitting on display. And then De Kock decided to kick it up a notch further in the death overs — 38 off 10 balls, bloody insane!

It can be tough to describe the sheer audacity of this hitting display. Some of it was bordered on disdain; two batsmen in purple form, dispatching the ball at will and it seemed as if even 22 fielders wouldn’t plug the field for Kolkata. Records galore, including, openers carrying through the 20 overs – it was the ‘rarest of rare’ hitting displays – one that stands Lucknow in good stead for what is the most important bit of its inaugural season.

You know what makes the IPL the best T20 franchise tournament in the world? Even after getting smacked in this fashion, Kolkata didn’t throw in the towel. This is a team mired in inconsistent batting displays – you wouldn’t bet a nickel on the Knight Riders chasing down 210 any damn day, least of all when they are fighting to stay alive in the tournament. Perhaps, that was just it – the spur needed to not give up, to keep going and see where it landed them.

And that’s what Kolkata did, in true underdog fashion. It didn’t have two batsmen gunning through those 20 overs, no. Instead, wickets kept falling regularly, and yet they kept gunning for the chase. The openers failed but Nitish Rana upped the ante. When he fell, Sam Billings didn’t let the momentum fall. At the other end, Shreyas Iyer unleashed his own style of hitting, smacking even short balls over the square leg boundary.

Who doesn’t like a true underdog story? Five years sitting around the IPL, getting the odd opportunity and a few deliveries to make his mark, Singh has waited his chance for long. He isn’t a starter for any IPL side – a squad player to change around with formations and strategies. Kolkata suits him well – this is the team that has chopped and changed most in IPL 2022. And yet, it took eight matches for him to get a game, almost as if after Kolkata had tried everything else.

The IPL is spectacular not only because of how big names like Rahul and de Kock set it alight. It is romanticised more with the feats of Rinku Singh and his ilk – the also-rans, the underdogs, and the ones who wouldn’t get a look in on an ordinary day. But when they do, they convert ordinary days into spectacular ones.

69 off 26 – that was the equation when Singh arrived at the crease. He was still the underdog, batting alongside Andre Russell. Anyone, and everyone, would look at Russell to finish this first, not him. Six balls later, he was gone. 61 off 20 still needed. Then, the underdog stepped up. Through a smash and grab job, he and Sunil Narine brought it down to 21 needed off six balls.

Bang, bang, bang went Singh, before Evin Lewis topped it off with an outrageous moment – a one-handed catch, sliding in from deep extra cover. By that point, you were numb to this game, to its pure, unadulterated madness.

Isn’t it the glorious uncertainty of the IPL, of this sport even, that de Kock didn’t know until the last delivery if his 140 not out off 70 balls would end up in victory?

That Marcus Stoinis pulled off a last-ball heist is testament to this tournament’s true spirit – the big boys’ impact versus the underdog’s chutzpah, the top names from across the world matched step-for-step by the unknown entities from India’s wilderness.

Together, they serve up a festival of cricket every night.

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