Rinku Singh opens up about his early struggles in cricket

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 11 (ANI): Rinku Singh is the talk of the town for his out-of-the-world feat against defending champions Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.

In a conversation on JioCinema's show #AAKASHVANI,' Kolkata Knight Riders' Rinku Singh spoke about his initial battles and how his family did not support his aspirations of being a cricketer. "At that time, I went to Kanpur to play for the first time in my hostel tournament and my mother gave me Rs 1,000 and supported me but my father used to beat me whenever I used to play," Rinku admitted.

With 29 runs needed in the final over. Rinku Singh came through with a cameo, hitting five successive sixes in the final over to seal what was once an improbable win for KKR. Rinku scored 48* in 21 balls, consisting of one four and six sixes.

Rinku Singh was given the 'Player of the Match' award for his unbelievable match-winning cameo.

Singh said his father insisted that he focused on getting a job rather than playing cricket which after a point his mother aligned to. "My brother used to work in a coaching centre as a cleaner and he took me there for a job - I was given the job to clean early in the morning and leave so that nobody would get to know. But I didn't like the job, so I left it and came back to focus on cricket," Singh recalled.

Singh further elaborated on his first successful tournament as a cricketer. "We were playing against the Delhi Public School team and, I really batted well in that match scoring around 70 in a winning cause. So, the owner of the DPS, Swapnil Jain, asked me to join his team," Singh said.

In 2012, a global cricket competition of schools was organised with teams from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Dubai, and Bangladesh. Singh struck gold by winning the Player of the Tournament. "I won a bike from that competition and my cricket career started looking promising and from that day onwards day my father stopped scolding me," Singh remembered.

Singh also spoke about how much KKR buying him in the IPL auctions aided him and his family. "It was very important for me because I didn't expect that I will go for that much money. I thought that I will go to Mumbai for some Rs 20-25 lakh but that price kept on getting high and reached Rs 80 lakh. So, my family was very happy and with that Rs 80 lakh I got our house constructed and then I bought a car for my father because he wanted a car for a long time. So, my father was happy, and my family was as well," Singh concluded.

With this win, KKR has climbed to third position in the points table, winning two of their three matches and losing one. They have a total of four points. GT has slipped to fourth position and has a similar win-loss record to KKR, but KKR is one position up due to a superior net run rate. (ANI)