The National Times - Parag's six sixes in a row, Pant flops in IPL

In the day's second match, Rishabh Pant again struggled to a low score as his Lucknow Super Giants team slumped to a fourth defeat in five IPL games, losing by 37 runs to the Punjab Kings.

Parag went on the attack as Rajasthan, chasing 207 for victory, slipped to 71-5. He struck 95 off 45 balls and hit six sixes in six successive legal balls -- a first in IPL -- across two overs.

The 23-year-old's blitz, which included a wide in between the fourth and fifth six, began with him smacking England spinner Moeen Ali for five sixes in an over. Then, after his partner Shimron Hetmyer took a single, he hit one over the fence off Varun Chakravarthy.

Parag joined an elite list of batters to have hit five sixes in an over in the IPL after Chris Gayle (2012), Rahul Tewatia (2020), Ravindra Jadeja (2021) and Rinku Singh (2023).

Parag, who is leading the team in the absence of regular skipper Sanju Samson, added 92 with Hetmyer, but after their departures Rajasthan finished on 205-8 after a tense last over.

Needing 22 to win in the final over, impact substitute Shubham Dubey, a left-hand batter, hit two sixes and a four off Vaibhav Arora who defended three on the final ball with a run out of Jofra Archer as KKR celebrated.

"I was just too sad about myself getting out," said Parag. "Probably a miscalculation from my side. I should have finished it."

Kolkata remain in the hunt for the play-offs with their fifth victory in 11 matches. Rajasthan are already out of the final-four race.

The top four teams from the league phase will move into the play-offs.

Andre Russell set up victory for three-time champions Kolkata as he struck form with his unbeaten 57 off 25 balls to steer Kolkata to 206-4.

- Lucknow's IPL 'dream still alive' -

In the late match, opener Prabhsimran Singh struck 91 off 48 balls to steer Punjab to 236-5, helped by several impressive cameos at the Kings' second home in Dharamsala.

Arshdeep Singh then returned brilliant figures of 3-16 as Lucknow could only make 199-7 in reply. Pant fell for a 17-ball 18 in another failure for the India star.

Pant, who was snapped up by LSG for a record price of $3.21 million in the November auction, could not find any fluency despite hitting two fours and one six.

The wicketkeeper-batsman has mustered only 128 runs from 10 innings this season.

Lucknow sit seventh in the table, four points outside the fourth and final play-off spot with three games remaining.

"The dream is still alive," Pant said of his team's chances of moving ahead in the T20 tournament. "If we can win the next three matches, we can definitely turn around and do amazing things."

Punjab climbed to second behind leaders Royal Challengers Bengaluru after a seventh win of the campaign.

Lucknow were never in their chase after left-arm seamer Arshdeep struck twice in the space of four balls in his second over to send back Mitchell Marsh, for a duck, and then Aiden Markram, for 13.

He dismissed the dangerous Nicholas Pooran for six before Pant attempted to rebuild in a scratchy innings that was ended by Afghanistan all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai.

Omarzai soon sent back David Miller for 11 to put Lucknow in further trouble at 73-5.

Ayush Badoni, who top-scored with 74, and Abdul Samad, who hit 45, put on a valiant stand of 81 but could only reduce the margin of defeat.

P.Johnston--TNT