The bat with which Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rinku Singh hit five successive sixes actually belongs to captain Nitish Rana. This was revealed by the KKR captain in video posted on KKR’s Twitter handle. Another secret revealed by the KKR captain: He reluctantly gave the bat to teammate Rinku Singh.

“This (the one Rinku used) is my bat and I played both matches (this season) with this bat. I have played the entire Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and the last four to five matches of last year with this bat,” Rana said after the sensational win late on Sunday.

“Today (Sunday) I changed my bat. Rinku asked me for my bat. I didn’t want to give him my bat initially, but somebody brought this bat (from dressing room). I had a feeling that he would pick this bat because it has a very nice pickup and according to my weight this bat is light. So (now) this bat belongs to Rinku, not me,” said captain Nitish Rana.

On Sunday, at the Ahmedabad stadium, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rinku Singh slammed five consecutive sixes to pull off a sensational three-wicket win over Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League. KKR needed 29 off the last over and Rinku slammed left-arm pacer Yash Dayal for five sixes on the trot to register a last-ball victory.

KKR head coach Chandrakanta Pandit also heaped praise on Rinku Singh for his sensational batting.

“In 43 years of my cricket career, being coach, playing cricket, first class cricket and international, I’ve previously seen two innings. One is Ravi Shastri scoring six sixes in the Ranji Trophy, and second was last ball sixes by Javed Miandad in Dubai (Sharjah) and after that I’m seeing you (Rinku).”

Earlier, electing to bat, Gujarat Titans rode on Sai Sudharsan and Vijay Shankar’s fifties to post a mammoth 204 for four. Hardik Pandya missed the game and in his place Rashid Khan led the Gujarat side in his absence. Hailing from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, Rinku Sharma comes from a lower-middle-class family. His father delivered LPG cylinders while in the 2015-16 season when they had a debt of Rs 5 lakh, Rinku, while playing for the UP under-19 side, began saving from his daily allowance and he even almost took up the job of a domestic worker.

“My father struggled a lot, I come from a farmer’s family. Every ball that I hit out of the ground was dedicated to the people who sacrificed so much for me,” Rinku said after his match-winning knock. (With Agency Inputs)