'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.'
The bat with which Kolkata Knight Riders' Rinku Singh hit five successive sixes against Gujarat Titans belonged to his captain Nitish Rana, who reluctantly gave it to his teammate.
The left-handed Rinku hammered successive sixes off Yash Dayal from the last five balls of KKR's run chase to hand his side a miraculous three-wicket win in their IPL match in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
"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 the captain in a video posted on KKR's Twitter handle.
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)."
