Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane achieved a massive milestone in the IPL, as five boundaries took him past the 500-mark in the tournament. Rahane became the sixth batter in IPL history and fifth Indian to get to the landmark of 500 fours, with Shikhar Dhawan leading the way as the KKR skipper smashed his third half-century of the season.
Rahane joined the likes of Dhawan, Virat Kohli, David Warner, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina on the list. Rahane just needs to hit five more boundaries to get into the top five on the list surpassing Raina, who has 506 boundaries in his name playing for the Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Lions in his IPL career, which looks very much possible.
Most fours in IPL
768 - Shikhar Dhawan (DC/Deccan/MI/PBKS/SRH) in 221 innings
732 - Virat Kohli (RCB) in 252 innings
663 - David Warner (DC/SRH) in 184 innings
609 - Rohit Sharma (Deccan/MI) in 259 innings
506 - Suresh Raina (CSK/GL) in 200 innings
502 - Ajinkya Rahane (KKR/RPS/RR/CSK/MI/DC) in 179 innings
Rahane has been in terrific touch, however, the Knight Riders are in the middle of what is looking like a poor season, with five defeats already out of the eight matches they have played. There have been a couple of matches they would have hoped to be on the right side of, against the Lucknow Super Giants where they fell short by four runs and definitely in the one against the Punjab Kings where they were chasing 112 as they batting has been a bit of worry, which looks overstuffed and underpowered with Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh and Andre Russell being out of sorts.
The Knight Riders still can turn their campaign around, however, they will require five wins in six matches to qualify and need a humongous effort to challenge the top four teams for a place in the knockouts. Can they do it? They have the team and it has to start at this very venue against the Kings, once again.