Kolkata Knight Riders batter Rinku Singh was seen trying to steal Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya’s bat in a hilarious video. The Knight Riders were up against the Indians in the 65th league-stage
clash of the IPL 2026 at Eden Gardens. The game saw the Ajinkya Rahane-led side record a four-wicket win over their counterparts to keep their playoff berth alive in the season. Earlier in the game, Rahane had won the toss and invited the rivals to put the score on the board first.
The Mumbai Indians couldn’t do much with the bat in a rain-hit game and posted an average total of 147 runs with the loss of eight wickets. In return, Manish Pandey and Rovman Powell came up with 45 and 40 runs, respectively to help the side easily chase the target. However following the game, a video of MI and KKR’s previous clash started to make rounds on social media.
In the season opener for both the teams at Wankhede Stadium, all-rounder Rinku Singh was caught on camera playfully snatching away MI skipper Hardik Pandya’s bat and walking off with it. The incident took place when the players on both sides were engaged in customary handshakes. The video of the incident went viral on social media where fans couldn’t help but remark on Singh’s fetish to check out other players’ bats.
Hardik gave his bat to Rinku to hold so he could remove his gloves, and look how silently Rinku is stealing it 😭 pic.twitter.com/qucC9ndjcB
— OldMonkOfCricket (@OldMonkOfCric) May 21, 2026
Hardik Pandya reflects on four-wicket loss against Kolkata Knight Riders
Coming back to Wednesday’s game, the clash saw a poor display of batting and fielding prowess from the visitors side. After not being able to do much with the bat, the five-time champions displayed poor fielding prowess, dropping multiple catches during the game. Talking about the same, MI skipper Hardik Pandya said, “I mean, quite entertaining. Definitely as a batting group, we were 20 short. I think we lost a lot of wickets in powerplay, but if Tilak and I would have stayed longer, and we had stitched a couple of more partnerships and got those 15-20 runs, I think we would have had a decent chance.”
He added, “I don't know. I think throughout the season, we've been quite poor in fielding. I think we have dropped a lot of catches, which obviously no one wants to do it. But in that part of the game, I think there is no hiding away. I mean if you get chances, if you want to win games, you need to grab all the chances, even half chances as well. But yeah, when you drop chances which can change the game, it's always you are chasing the game.”
The Indians will now host the Rajasthan Royals in their last game of the season on Sunday, May 24 at Wankhede.
