'I played both matches with this bat' - Kolkata Knight Riders' skipper Nitish Rana reveals Rinku Singh used his bat in exploits against Gujarat Titans

The 13th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 saw the defending champions Gujarat Titans take on the Nitish Rana-led Kolkata Knight Riders at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, and rightly so, the match proved to be an all-time classic.

After Gujarat had posted 204 runs on the board in the first innings, Kolkata came in to bat, and the two-time champions got off to a rocky start as both openers were dismissed quite early in the run chase.

After the fall of the openers, Venkatesh Iyer and skipper Nitish Rana handled things for their side. However, it was the magical knock of Rinku Singh that propelled Kolkata to a magnificent victory. The 25-year-old scored 48* runs to help his side achieve a win. In the final over of the game, he hit five consecutive sixes in fabulous fashion.

Following the win, skipper Nitish Rana came forward to reveal that the bat that Rinku Singh used to chase the target down was actually the skipper’s. "This [the one Rinku used] is my bat, and I played both matches [this season] with this bat. I have played the entire Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the last four to five matches of last year with this bat," Rana said in a video posted by KKR.

KolkataKnightRiders@KKRiders

Rinku claimed the match & 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘵! 💜 #GTvKKR | #AmiKKR | #TATAIPL 2023 | @NitishRana_27 | @rinkusingh235

12:31 AM · Apr 10, 2023

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I didn't want to give him my bat initially: Rana

Continuing upon the same, Nitish Rana revealed that he was hesitant to let Rinku take his bat at first, but following the magnificent run chase, he happily gifted it to the 25-year-old batter from Uttar Pradesh.

"Today [Sunday] I changed my bat. Rinku asked me for my bat. I didn't want to give him my bat initially, but somebody brought this bat [from dressing room], I had a feeling that he would pick this bat because it has a very nice pickup and according to my weight this bat is light. So [now] this bat belongs to Rinku, not me," Rana said.