KKR vs RR: Shreyas Iyer And Brendan McCullum Told Me To Play Till The End - Rinku Singh

Rinku Singh has been in the IPL circuit for quite a while now. He has been associated with Kolkata Knight Riders since 2018.

Even though he has spent so much time at the franchise he didn’t get many opportunities to play in the XI. KKR bought him back in the 2022 IPL mega auctions and this time he has gotten match time as well.

He proved KKR’s management’s faith in him right as he helped KKR chase down 153 against Rajasthan Royals here on Monday at the Wankhede Stadium in Match 47 of Tata IPL 2022. He scored 42 runs off 23 balls.

I’m The First Player From Aligarh To Play In The IPL: Rinku Singh

He came into bat when KKR was 92-3. They still needed more than 50 runs to win the game. He joined Nitish Rana and they both combined together to put up a brilliant partnership and took the team home. Rinku Singh hit 6 fours and six and took most of the pressure off Nitish Rana.

The best part about Rinku’s innings was his running between the wickets. He constantly put pressure on the fielders in the deep. It worked a couple of times as fielders fumbled and he converted the ones into twos.

Rinku Singh’s largely been known for his fielding till now as he on several occasions has come into the field as a substitute for KKR in the last 3-4 years but now he has shown his prowess with the bat as well.

The best part about IPL is that it gives players from all the corners of the country to play alongside big names in the cricketing world. Rinku Singh comes from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, he has been around for a while, and he finally got a chance to shine.

“A lot of players have played Ranji from Aligarh, but I am the first to play 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. I worked very hard, came back from injury and did well in the domestic circuit as well. When I was batting, Bhaiyya (Iyer) and Baz (McCullum) told me to stay till the end and finish it”, Rinku said in the post-match presentation.

It would be interesting to see if KKR can keep this momentum going as they won’t like to lose another game in the tournament with just 4 games remaining.

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