India’s explosive batter Rinku Singh made headlines when he smashed those five sixes against Gujarat Titans in the last edition of the IPL and on the back of that, he got a national call too. Ever since he started playing for India, he has been showing great intent. Now that the 2024 T20 World Cup is on the cards, Rinku’s performance will be closely assessed.
On Tuesday, once again the Uttar Pradesh-based batter proved his finishing skills after he collected a maiden half-century while skipper Suryakumar Yadav also played well, taking India to a fighting total of 180 for seven in the second T20I against South Africa.
Rinku is playing for the first time in Rainbow Nation and after seeing his batting, it did not seem so. He started his innings slowly and then took the top gear, punishing South African bowlers all around the park.
Rinku also smashed nine fours and two huge sixes in his innings of unbeaten 68 runs off just 39 balls. One of his sixes even broke the glass of the media box. Earlier, after batting first, India suffered a few early blows in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill for six runs before Surya (56 off 36) led from the front and built stands with Tilak Varma (29 off 20) and then Rinku (68 not out off 39).
It was a total of 70 runs that Rinku and Surya added for the Indian team. Skipper Surya played his usual aggressive cricket while Rinku also showed why he is rated so highly. Talking about the first two wickets of the Indian team, Jaiswal failed to face the South African pace attack as Marco Jansen snared him while Gill was caught in front of the wicket by Lizaad Williams.