From contentious wide to Rinku Singh’s match winning knock- Talking points from match number 47

After losing 5 games on the trot, Kolkata finally came back to winning ways on Monday. The two time champions defeated Rajasthan by 5 wickets to register their fourth victory of the tournament. Kolkata first restricted the batting heavy Rajasthan to a subpar total of 151 then comfortably chased down the target with 5 balls to spare. Rinku Singh and Nitish Rana were the chief architects of the pivotal win. 

For Rajasthan this was their second consecutive loss and their campaign after six wins has suddenly gone off the tracks. Rajasthan haven’t been getting contributions from players other than Samson, Butler and Hetmeyer and have inflicted 150 odd scores in two games in a row. With this win, Kolkata kept their qualification hopes alive. 

Let’s now have a look at the few talking points from the match 

Controversial wide call sparks debate; Umpiring err raises more questions than answers

Umpiring has once again come into question after Nitin Pandit made a doubtful call in the 19th over of the run chase.  With 18  required of two overs, the match was hanging in balance. Sanju Samson entrusted Prasidh Krishna to bowl the penultimate over. In the fourth ball of the over, Rinku shuffled across the off stump and went almost near the tramline to attempt a ramp shot, while the ball was outside the line. The umpire however called it wide despite the rules stating otherwise as the ball was within the reach of the batsman after the movement. 

Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson was not at all pleased with the decision and he even signalled a DRS over the questionable call.  

Rinku Singh comes to the rescue 

Rinku Singh has been with the purple army for 5 years now. In these 5 years, the hard hitting batter has only played 13 games. In half of these 13 games Rinku didn’t even get the chance to bat. Despite scoring heavily in the domestic circuit, the 24 year old failed to cement his place in the playing XI until now. 2022 has been a breath of fresh air for Rinku. The southpaw thus far has been featured in 3 games and has been impressive on all three occasions. With 100 runs and a handful of catches the youngster is certainly the one to watch out for. Last night Rinku Singh exhibited his prowess as a premier striker, scoring a quickfire 42 to help his side snap the 5 match losing streak. 

How to beat Rajasthan?  Keep Butler in check and play carefully against the spin duo of Ashwin-Chahal  

Till a couple of games Rajasthan were on the verge of comfortably qualifying for the playoffs. But now with two losses on the bounces, the former champions are looking a little rusty. The team is untested on many fronts. In the batting department Jos Butler has covered and made up for the fragile middle order. The spin duo of Ashwin-Chahal have done all the hard work in the bowling prowess. The fact that Rajasthan are overdependent on a few players is hurting them and if not dealt properly can result in their downfall.