Kolkata: Riyan Parag came agonisingly close to helping Rajasthan Royals (RR) pull off a tricky chase in their IPL 2025 clash against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday evening.
The Rajasthan skipper launched a blistering assault at the Eden Gardens, clobbering six sixes off as many legal deliveries, including five in an over.
Despite Parag’s 95 off 45 balls (6×4, 8×6), Rajasthan Royals lost by 1 run, chasing 207 for victory.
Rajasthan looked dead and buried at 72/5 at the end of 8th over after KKR had posted 205/4 in their 20 overs. Parag then took charge to give the home team a real fright.
He targeted off-spinner Moeen Ali for special treatment in the 13th over. Shimron Hetmyer gave Parag the strike by taking a single off the first delivery. The next four balls disappeared out of the ground as Parag cleared the boundary at square leg, midwicket, long on and long off. A wide ball followed, before Parag hit his fifth six of the over as Moeen conceded 32 runs.
Hetmyer again ran a single off the first ball of the next over, before Parag cracked his sixth successive overboundary – this time with a reverse sweep off Varun Chakravarthy.
Riyan Parag is best batter for RR in last year. This is Reason RR Retained him and give Captaincy absence of Sanju.
But this Season he has not converted his small Innings to big. Finally he played a terrific Knock for his team. #KKRvsRR pic.twitter.com/ccfjrkZjv5
— VIKAS (@VikasYadav69014) May 4, 2025
Parag thus matched the likes of Chris Gayle, Rahul Tewatia and Rinku Singh who have hit 5 sixes in an over in the IPL.
He also emulated Yuvraj Singh, Kieron Pollard and Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee in hitting six sixes in as many balls, though the last-named trio did it in a single over in T20 Internationals.
RIYAN PARAG’S SIX-HITTING FRENZY
12.2 – Whipped over deep square leg fence for a flat six off Moeen Ali
12.3 – Hit over long on off Moeen
12.4 – Slog-swept over square leg off Moeen
12.5 – Sent soaring over long on off Moeen
12.6 (after a wide) – Clobbered over long off to complete Moeen over
13.2 (after coming on strike) – Reverse wept over deep point off Varun Chakaravarthy
FIVE SIXES IN AN OVER IN IPL
* Chris Gayle – off Rahul Sharma, 2012
* Rahul Tewatia – off Sheldon Cotterell, 2020
* Ravindra Jadeja – off Harshal Patel, 2021
* Rinku Singh – off Yash Dayal, 2023
* Riyan Parag — off Moeen Ali, 2025.