Ice-cool Rinku Singh delivers first win for KKR

Kolkata Knight Riders nearly bungled it again. Except this time, Rinku Singh was around to see them through as the three-time champions finally broke their drought seven games into their IPL 2026 campaign, recording a 4-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals at the Eden Gardens. The win took them to ninth position on the points table above Mumbai Indians, albeit having played two games more.

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Rajasthan Royals 155/9 in 20 overs [Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 46 (28); Varun Chakaravarthy 3-14, Kartik Tyagi 3-22, Sunil Narine 2-26] lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 161/6 in 19.4 overs [Rinku Singh 53* (34), Anukul Roy 29* (16); Ravindra Jadeja 2-8, Yash Raj Punja 1-25] by 4 wickets.

Rinku Singh was on 8 off as many deliveries when he skied a Ravindra Jadeja delivery in the 11th over of KKR's chase. 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 charge, slog-sweeping Ravi Bishnoi over mid-wicket before peeling off a couple of boundaries off 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 at the halfway mark, RR looked well poised to post a total upwards of 180 but on a deck that offered turn, Chakaravarthy picked up from an impressive spell against GT. 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. Both spinners combined for figures of 5/40 off their eight overs and RR could never recover from it.

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. Yet, Sooryavanshi raced to 24 off 12 despite sticking to authentic shots, underlining his skill. The final Powerplay over saw both openers tear into Cameron Green, who traveled for 22 runs and bowled 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. Eventually, he was the first wicket to fall for 46, after which the wheels came off.

Jofra Archer picked up a first-ball wicket for the third time this season, cleaning up Tim Seifert, before Ajinkya Rahane bagged a second consecutive duck as he slashed a short and wide delivery to the keeper. Cameron Green counter-attacked but Parag duly brought Ravi Bishnoi into the attack as he nabbed the all-rounder, although it was equally down to Dhruv Jurel's acrobatic brilliance as he fetched the ball well down 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 some light at the end of the tunnel, handing RR their second successive defeat.

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).