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Rinku, Chakravarthy inspire KKR to their first win

cricket19 April 2026 14:20| © MWP
By:CS Chiwanza
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Varun Chakravarthy captured three vital wickets before Rinku Singh (53*) and Anukul Roy shared a vital unbroken 76-run partnership to shepherd Kolkata Knight Riders to a four-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals in their Tata Indian Premier League match at Eden Gardens on Sunday afternoon.

The Royals won the toss, elected to bat first, and put 155-9 on the board.

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KKR needed 19.4 overs to reach 161-6 and claim their first victory of the season. The win lifts them from the bottom of the table and into ninth place.

“We assessed it was a 170 wicket. So, we were dead under par. We tried giving ourselves time, but it didn't come off,” Riyan Parag, the Royals’ captain, said after the contest.

The Royals were on 85-6 after 13.3 overs and in need of a match-winning partnership when Rinku and Anukul joined hands in the middle.

They chose a circumspect approach in the first few overs of their partnership before accelerating in the last four overs.

“When runs don't come, you start thinking. It was not that I was hesitating in hitting my shots. The mindset was to take it till the end. God helped me. It was a very good innings for my confidence. The win will give us a lot of confidence. We'll look to carry this momentum forward,” Rinku revealed.

Rinku struck a well-worked unbeaten 53 from 34 balls (5X4s, 2X6s). This is his fifth IPL half-century, and his first of the season.

The No 6 batter, who benefited from a dropped catch when he was on eight from eight balls in the 11th over, made the Royals pay with a brilliant knock.

Anukul, on the other hand, ended the match not out on 29 from 16 balls.

“It was our game. No excuses there. We can't be dropping catches. We can't be bowling lines that favour the batsmen,” Parag shared.

VALUABLE VARUN

Varun Chakravarthy marked a brilliant return to form for KKR by claiming three wickets for 14 runs in four overs.

The spinner was the most economical bowler in the contest and his effort helped KKR to restrict the Royals to a chaseable total.

His spin partner, Sunil Narine, claimed two wickets for 26 runs in four overs.

The pair combined to put the lid on the visitor's run rate, and, most importantly, dislodged the Royals' high-scoring duo of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who gave the Royals a great start with their 81-run opening stand.

Kartik Tyagi was also brilliant with the ball for KKR. He finished with three wickets for 22 runs in four overs.

KKR looked in trouble after the Royals' fine start with the ball.

Jofra Archer and Nandre Burger claimed two wickets in the first two overs to pin them on the back.

Cameron Green kept KKR believing with a brisk 13-ball 27 runs. His cameo helped set the stage for Rinku Singh to step up and score a match-winning knock.

Ravindra Jadeja was the Royals' most successful bowler with two wickets for eight runs in three overs.

Archer, Burger, Ravi Bishnoi and Yash Raj Punja all took a wicket each.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Tim Seifert (wk), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Sunil Narine, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (capt), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Ravi Bishnoi, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma.

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