Rinku Singh delivers first win for KKR
The Kolkata Knight Riders almost made a mistake again. Except that this time, Rinku Singh was there to see them through. Seven games into their IPL 2026 campaign, the three-time champions finally broke their drought with a 4-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Eden Gardens. Despite having played two more games, the victory moved them above Mumbai Indians to ninth place on the points table.
When Rinku Singh skied a Ravindra Jadeja delivery in the 11th over of KKR's chase, he was on 8 deliveries in a row. Nandre Burger, running in from short third but made a mess of it. That would prove to be a costly mistake, for which the Royals duly paid as Rinku took the game deep before acing the chase with ice-cool nerve. After the spinners applied a choke on the Knight Riders, they needed 59 off the last 5 overs in pursuit of 156.
Rinku took over and slog-swept Ravi Bishnoi over midwicket before removing a few boundaries from Jofra Archer. Anukul Roy gave him company with some handy blows as KKR needed nine runs off the last over. Brijesh Sharma was tasked with bowling the same but erred in line as Rinku smashed two fours to level the scores, before hooking a short ball over the wicket-keeper's head to get to his fifty and script KKR's first win.
After what has been a miserable campaign for KKR entering this game, this contest had a touch of nostalgia to it as Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine combined to spin a web around the Royals in the middle-overs. At 95/1 halfway through, RR appeared well-positioned to reach 180, but Chakaravarthy won against GT with an impressive spell in a turn-based deck. Having dismissed Vaibhav Sooryavanshi earlier by forcing him to hit it towards the longer leg-side boundary, he beat Dhruv Jurel on the reverse-hit and had him stumped. Sunil Narine then had Yashasvi Jaiswal caught at cover as the slowdown began, with RR going 28 deliveries without scoring a boundary.
Chakaravarthy continued to get turn at good pace, castling Riyan Parag before Narine wrapped up his spell with the wicket of Donovan Ferreira, who tamely chipped it back. RR never recovered from the spinners' combined figures of 5/40 in their eight overs.
Sooryavanshi and Jaiswal both got off the mark in uncharacteristic fashion - with a tip and run. Neither batter took undue risks early on, perhaps stemming from how it left RR reeling at 2/4 in their previous game. Nonetheless, Sooryavanshi demonstrated his skill by soaring to 24 off 12 shots. Both openers ripped into Cameron Green in the final Powerplay over, who scored 22 runs while bowling as many as four wides. Sooryavanshi continued to give the good balls respect and did not look fazed despite being beaten by Narine on a couple of occasions. But it wasn't the archetypal Sooryavanshi innings as he looked determined to bat long, although he wasn't able to time some of his attacking shots as well as he would have liked. He was eventually the first wicket to fall for 46, and then the wheels started turning.
Jofra Archer cleaned Tim Seifert for his third first-ball wicket of the season, and Ajinkya Rahane smashed a short and wide delivery to the keeper for his second consecutive duck. Cameron Green launched a counterattack, but Parag promptly brought Ravi Bishnoi into the fray and snatched the all-rounder. However, Dhruv Jurel's acrobatic skill also played a role, as he retrieved the ball well below the leg before throwing it onto the stumps. Ravindra Jadeja bagged a couple of wickets while the tall leggie Yash Raj Punja was an inspired Impact Substitute decision on RR's part, finishing with 1-25.
KKR were once again tied down by spin and had Burger held onto Rinku's catch, the story could have proved different. Instead, the Knight Riders finally saw the end of the tunnel, defeating RR for the second time in succession.
Both teams head to Lucknow to face the Super Giants. RR first, on Wednesday (April 22), before KKR take the field after a week's break on Sunday (April 26).
