There are explosive innings, and then there are innings that turn the game of a match upside down in a matter of a few overs. That was exactly the type of knock that Finn Allen had for Kolkata Knight Riders against Gujarat Titans.
The New Zealand batsman had fearless intent on the New Zealand bowling attack, smashing boundaries as if they were made of tissue paper and ending with a breath-taking 93 in 35 balls. He was just one off a century, but the innings was still historic in terms of how many sixes he hit that went into the stands.
Allen joined a class of IPL players who had the ability to hit pure, with his 10 maximums in the innings. Allen is only one of a few players in the tournament’s history with multiple innings in which he hit 10 or more sixes, a feat that he repeated for the second time in his career.
The one that makes this even more spectacular is the company that he’s a part of. It’s also been achieved by modern-day IPL heroes such as Abhishek Sharma and the emerging talent Vaibhav Suryavanshi twice but Chris Gayle remains the leader for this category. Former RCB superstar still has the unbeaten crown of six hitting in IPL history as he has crossed 10 sixes in four innings.
Allen’s display of course reminds one of the days of fearless batting with Gayles carving out a memorable 175-run carnage in 2013.
The most striking aspect of Allen’s performance was the pace. No slow starts and no settling period – the attacking cricket was there from the beginning. That was for every one of the over-shifting of pressure on the bowlers, and the innings yet again proved the value of the powerplay specialist in T20 cricket today.
Although the century was lost, Allen’s shot managed to do something much more significant – it further cements his reputation as one of the most dangerous hitters in the tournament this year.
And his current shape might only continue to grow with the list of records around his name.