Knights fans live in hope as Rinku finds mojo back as a finisher

Two giant tifos at the Eden Gardens, of the kind most commonly seen at football games, showed how desperately Kolkata Knight Riders fans wanted their team to prevail in the must-win match against Rajasthan Royals. 'Through every storm, we are together', read one in the Sourav Ganguly Stand, while another read 'One purple heart beats strong'.

It may not have been an impressive performance by any stretch of the imagination, but vice-captain Rinku Singh and young Anukul Roy pulled KKR back from the brink to seal a thrilling four-wicket win and live another day this season. The first full points of IPL 2026 still leave the Knights struggling on three points from seven games, but there's a mathematical possibility of them still making it to the last four.

Apart from helping their loyal band of supporters breathe a huge sigh of relief, there were a number of positives from an absorbing battle that Ajinkya Rahane’s army would like to build on if they want to keep the campaign alive. Rinku, named vice-captain of the franchise with much fanfare but failing to do justice to his reputation as a finisher, kept his calm with his first fifty of the innings and found an able ally in unheralded young allrounder Anukul Roy.

A 76-run partnership off 37 balls between the two for the seventh wicket turned the tide for the hosts after they had slumped to 85/6 in the 14th over. Earlier, spin twins Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy found form on a wicket where stroke-making was not exactly easy, to restrict the highflying Royals to 155 after they chose to bat.

A target of 156 was certainly 15-20 runs below par on this wicket and against an attack which offered a variety of spin options, led by veteran Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Bishnoi. The Purple Army, however, were off to yet another messy start — losing Tim Seifert, Rahane and Cameron Green to be pushed to the backfoot at 37/3 inside the powerplay.

A 51,000-strong crowd braved oppressive heat to turn up for the season's only afternoon game at the venue. The KKR pace attack of Vaibhav Arora and Karthik kept the power duo of Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal on a leash as they reached 63 without loss after powerplay.

The curiosity level around 15-year-old Vaibhav, who has grown tremendously in stature in his second IPL season, was understandable. As one headed to the venue this afternoon, vendors sold Royals shirts with the branding ‘Suryavanshi’, a testimony to the aura of the teen prodigy. His 46 off 28 balls may have looked sombre by his standards, but showed he was also ready to play the waiting game if required.

Asked about his approach, Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara had said on Saturday: ‘’He (Vaibhav) reads the game really well, anticipates situations and plans for bowlers quite well.’’ That this was not just a manner of speaking became clear as Vaibhav picked the balls to hit judiciously this afternoon — though a straight six over Green’s head as well as one off Narine showed his abilities.