Rinku Singh's unbeaten 53 ends KKR's six-match winless run against Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2026

Twenty-two days. Six matches. Zero wins. That was the grim reality for Kolkata Knight Riders heading into their April 19 clash against Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens. Then Rinku Singh walked in at number six with the scoreboard reading 88 for 6, and everything changed. His unbeaten 53 off 34 balls, paired with Anukul Roy's aggressive 29 off 16, dragged KKR over the line by four wickets with two balls to spare, ending one of the more painful winless runs the franchise has seen in recent memory.

How Varun Chakravarthy set the tone

Rajasthan Royals chose to bat first and looked dangerous early. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal put on 81 without loss, and the pitch at Eden Gardens was offering nothing to the bowlers. Then Varun Chakravarthy came on and completely rewrote the innings. His four overs cost just 14 runs and claimed three wickets, including Jaiswal for 39 and a stumping off Dhruv Jurel that will be replayed for a while. Sunil Narine backed him up with 2 for 26, and rookie pacer Kartik Tyagi, who is still finding his feet in the IPL, took 3 for 22 to further expose RR's middle order.

RR went from 81 without loss to 155 for 9. That collapse, spanning 15 overs and nine wickets, told you everything about how badly the spin duo suffocated the innings. Sooryavanshi's 46 off 28 balls was the lone half-decent knock. Skipper Riyan Parag managed just 12, continuing what has become a worrying run of personal form for him this season.

A chase that nearly slipped away

Chasing 156 should have been comfortable. It was not. KKR's top order folded in familiar fashion, and by the 13th over they were 88 for 6, needing 67 off the remaining 39 balls. At that point, with Ravindra Jadeja and Jofra Archer still available to RR, the odds were firmly against them. Rinku Singh had other ideas.

He was dropped on 8 by Nandre Burger off Jadeja's bowling, a genuine sitter that slipped through. Moments like that can define a match. Rinku made full use of the reprieve, starting with a slog-swept six off Ravi Bishnoi in the 16th over to signal the shift in momentum. Roy, batting at number eight, played the perfect foil, targeting the off-side gaps and refusing to let dot balls pile up. Their 76-run seventh-wicket stand off just 37 balls was the match in miniature: desperate but controlled, scrappy but ultimately decisive. Rinku finished it with a six over fine leg off Brijesh Sharma.

What this result means for both sides

For KKR, the relief is real. They had lost matches from winning positions multiple times across the first few weeks, and there was growing pressure on captain Ajinkya Rahane to find answers. Three points at the halfway stage is not where a defending champion wants to be, but this win at least stops the bleeding. The return of Matheesha Pathirana, who joined the squad on April 19 after recovering from a calf injury, adds a meaningful pace option at the death for games ahead.

Rajasthan, on the other hand, have now lost two in a row after what looked like a strong start to their campaign. They sit third in the table with eight points from six games, so the damage is not severe. But their middle-order fragility, exposed brutally between overs 10 and 18, is a problem that Parag and the support staff need to address before the tournament reaches its critical phase. Losing a winning position of 81 for 0 to finish at 155 for 9 is not a batting collapse you can simply shrug off.

Rinku Singh's role in a difficult KKR season

Rinku Singh was named KKR's vice-captain for IPL 2026, and he had been struggling for runs before this knock. The pressure of the role, combined with a top order that kept handing him difficult situations to rescue, had made his early season quietly frustrating. This unbeaten 53 was exactly the innings he needed, both for his own confidence and to remind the franchise why they placed that trust in him. He has a very specific skill in IPL cricket: the ability to stay calm when almost everything is going wrong. That is not a common quality, and Eden Gardens got to see it at full power on Sunday evening.

KKR's next fixture will determine whether this win is a turning point or just a brief interruption to a difficult season. They face Gujarat Titans, who are currently on a three-match winning streak and sit comfortably in the top half of the table. For now, though, the wait for win number one is over. That matters more than the scoreline.