Kolkata: How significant was this win? “Very, very significant,” Varun Chakravarthy said with a sense of relief. So much so that he admitted to seeing a few eyes well up, something he hadn’t seen even “in the year we won the IPL”.
It wasn’t meant to be a night of drama. Not so deep into the season, certainly not for a side looking absolutely down and out. But Rinku Singh has a knack for rewriting scripts when the chips are down. So, when Rajasthan Royals gave him a reprieve on eight, Rinku turned it into a second chance, and how. With an unbeaten 34-ball 53 that was less about fireworks and more about fortitude, Rinku guided Kolkata Knight Riders to their first win of IPL 2026, by four wickets against Rajasthan Royals at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.
This win would also have been impossible without the 16-ball 29* from Anukul Roy, who came at the fall of the sixth wicket in the 14th over with KKR still needing 71 runs to win. With Roy playing the perfect foil at the other end, Rinku navigated the innings through stutters and stumbles, helping add 50 runs for the sixth wicket till the equation read 21 needed off 12 balls.
KKR hadn’t been in this scenario for a long time. And with their survival hinging on this match, there was no way Rinku could have frittered away this chance. KKR needed a win, and so did Rinku.
“Sometimes it happens like that when a few things don’t go your way, so you feel that intensity. It wasn’t like I was hesitating or unsure about playing my shots,” Rinku told the broadcaster after the match. “My mindset was to take the game till the end because I had conversations with the coach and also with my batting partner. The idea was to take it deep since the match was in a tricky situation.”
In T20 cricket, 21 in 12 balls isn’t tricky, but when you have been finding new ways of losing every match, no amount of belief can be good enough to carry you through. Royals were pulling all the stops, summoning Jofra Archer to bowl the 19th over in an effort to ratchet up the final over pressure. Roy prevented that with a six over long-off after clearing his front leg and backing into his crease. Six runs off the last five balls in the 19th over meant Rinku needed to score nine off the last six. Consecutive fours off Brijesh Sharma whittled it down to one in four. With no run off the third ball, Rinku uncorked a six over his head and behind the ‘keeper off the fourth delivery, sparking massive celebrations in the Eden stands.
“Feels really good,” said KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane at the presentation. “There were a lot of emotions. I am really happy for Rinku, Anukul and Varun (Chakravarthy). Really happy with how both of them batted in that partnership. This was a great escape for us. We need to reflect and learn. As a team, we have to come together and have that clear communication.”
Rahane’s pragmatism is understandable. Before this partnership unfolded, KKR’s innings was again turning into a nightmare with predictable dismissals. Tim Seifert was bowled first ball of the innings by Archer, followed by Rahane for a duck after nicking a wide ball from Nandre Burger to Dhruv Jurel. Brilliant wicketkeeping from Jurel—back-flicking the ball from the leg side—ran out Cameron Green to make it 37/3 before Angkrish Raghuvanshi fell leg before in the seventh over. Rovman Powell was gone first ball of the 11th over, by Ravindra Jadeja, and KKR were crumbling.
The match turned on its head four balls later when Burger called out to Jurel to claim a high catch off Rinku, but floored it. Not till the 15th over did Rinku score his first boundary—smashing Riyan Parag over his head for a straight four. Rinku had quietly taken charge of the chase. A six over midwicket off Ravi Bishnoi, two fours off Archer, a nudge here, a late cut there, Rinku assessed, absorbed and adapted.
The game could have panned out differently had RR finished better. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal added 81 for the opening wicket at nearly 10 runs per over. But once they were dismissed, RR simply couldn’t withstand the pressure from Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine who stuck to brilliant lines to choke the scoring. They shared five wickets for 40 runs before pacer Kartik Tyagi dismissed Shimron Hetmyer, Jadeja and Bishnoi to restrict Royals to 155/9.
Brief scores: RR 155/9 (Y Jaiswal 39, V Sooryavanshi 46, K Tyagi 3/22, S Narine 2/26, V Chakravarthy 3/14). KKR 161/6 (Rinku Singh 53*, R Jadeja 2/8). KKR won by 4 wickets.
