After surviving a horrific accident in 2015, Nicholas Pooran on Thursday hit the second-fastest fifty in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 as Kings XI Punjab chase a massive 202-run target in Dubai.
Pooran smacked Abdul Samad for six, four, six and six in the ninth over to race to a 17-ball fifty. He followed it up with another six off the fifth ball, milking 28 runs off the over. And that six off the third ball was the biggest of the season, a 105 metre-long monster.
Watch that eventful over, courtesy BCCI:
His KXIP skipper KL Rahul, who had an off day, still holds the record for the fastest fifty in the IPL -- off just 14 balls in 2018. Rahul in fact has another 19-ball fifty for the third fastest.
KXIP made a brilliant comeback in the final five overs by taking six wickets but a 160-run opening stand between Jonny Bairstow and David Warner still took SRH to an imposing 201 for six.
Bairstow smashed 97 off just 55 balls -- during which he hit seven fours and six sixes -- while Warner made 52 off 40 balls as KXIP bowlers did not have a clue how to get a breakthrough till the 15th over.
At that stage, SRH were 160 for no loss.
Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (3/29) then removed both Bairstow and Warner in the space of three balls in the 16th over before Arshdeep Singh (2/33) dismissed Manish Pandey for 1 in the next over to trigger a brilliant turnaround.
