Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had lost five straight matches before they took the field against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season. With a spot in the playoffs at stake, the Kolkata-based franchise needed to win in order to survive in the competition. In such a situation, the club found a new hero to guide them to victory, in the form of Rinku Singh.
"I felt like I will be the man of the match so I wrote 50 runs not out on my hand. I wrote this before the match before I went to sleep," the ecstatic 24-year-old proclaimed to his batting partner on the night, Nitish Rana.
"I have been having this feeling for a while now. That I will win the man-of-the-match for KKR, hit a half-century, and win the match for his team. It was a good innings, it came after five years but it was a good one," he added.
Rinku Singh starred with a match-winning unbeaten 42 for KKR, and although it was not a half century, the Uttar Pradesh-cricketer was happy to contribute to his team's win. Rinku also said that many Aligarh players have played the Ranji Trophy but he is the first to play IPL from his district.
"A lot of players have played Ranji from Aligarh, but I am the first to play in the IPL. This is a big league and there is a lot of pressure obviously. I have been waiting for the last five years to get a chance," Rinku said after winning the Man of the Match award on Monday, May 2.
Notably, the KKR batter had played only 10 matches for the two-time champions despite making his IPL debut back in 2018. However, now things are changed for the better as Rinku is slowly establishing himself as a regular in the playing XI. He is personally thrilled to be getting IPL opportunities after five years.
"I worked very hard, came back from injury and did well on the domestic circuit as well. When I was batting, Bhaiyya (Rana) and Baz (McCullum) told me to stay till the end and finish it, " he said.
After restricting RR to 152/5, the KKR innings started slowly after they lost openers Baba Indrajith and Aaron Finch early but consolidated well through skipper Shreyas Iyer (34) and Nitish Rana. Rana then finished things off in style with a six as he remained unbeaten on 48 alongside Rinku's quickfire 42 off 23 balls.
