Raghuvanshi saved his best performance for a big occasion, hitting 71 from 46 balls to get Kolkata Knight Riders to 192 for 4 versus Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Raipur. This great inning came after the start of the game was delayed by rain and seemed to give KKR some momentum in a very close 2026 IPL.
KKR didn’t have a great start. Ajinkya Rahane was out for 19, Finn Allen for 18, and after 21-year-old Raghuvanshi came to the crease at number three, the score was 23 for 1. From then on, Raghuvanshi figured out the pitch, played to keep things steady, and then started scoring faster.
Raghuvanshi steadies and then surges
He got to 50 in 32 balls, with five fours and two sixes. In total he hit seven fours and three sixes, but what really showed was his ability to change the speed of his scoring: he found gaps in the field early on, and then hit the ball powerfully once he was comfortable.
One of the moments that really changed the flow of the game was when he hit the ball cleanly over wide long-on early in his innings. Later, two nicely hit boundaries took him into the 40s, and a high shot over extra cover in the 15th over showed how much control he was gaining. He didn’t let the innings slow down at any point.
Two stands that changed the tone
The innings was built around two partnerships that took KKR from just getting back on track to being in a strong position. He and Cameron Green added 68 runs (Green made 32 from 24 balls), which made the middle of the innings easier and changed the state of the game.
Then Raghuvanshi and Rinku Singh really finished things off. They scored 76 runs together for the fourth wicket, with Rinku getting 49 not out from 29 balls, to put KKR in a very good place. Raghuvanshi played the steady role, Rinku finished strongly, and the run rate didn’t fall during the last overs.
Key numbers and conditions
KKR finished with 192 for 4 after 20 overs – a lot of runs on a pitch that had been made wet by the rain. The game began an hour and fifteen minutes late because of the wet ground after the rain, which meant both teams needed to act quickly.
This 71 is Raghuvanshi’s highest score in the IPL. He got it from 46 balls with seven fours and three sixes, a combination of clever shot placement and hitting with power, and it was about how he played the innings, not just about getting a big score.
Why this knock matters for KKR
Before the match, KKR were eighth in the league table with nine points from ten games and needed to do well in the remaining games. Raghuvanshi has been consistent all season and is their highest run scorer with 340 runs from 11 matches and a strike rate of 139.34.
Over three seasons, the young player has 803 runs from 33 matches at a strike rate of t 142.37, and has scored fifty in six of those innings. This 71 in Raipur isn’t just his best score yet, it also shows that he’s becoming the player KKR can rely on to steady things when batting at number three.
Here are the takeaways for KKR’s campaign from this innings:
– One player anchored while strike-rate stayed healthy
– Middle-overs run-building without risk spikes
– Partnerships clicked when openers fell early
– Death overs scored without panic
What the coaches are saying
Shane Watson, an assistant coach, said before the game that Raghuvanshi is very promising, and compared him to Sanju Samson when he was first starting to do well.
Watson also said: “How much his skills have improved at the age of 21 is amazing. We’ve seen glimpses of how good he can be, but there’s a lot more to come. What’s noticeable is that he can change how he plays to suit different pitches and bowlers, and he has a lot of different ways to hit the ball.”
What comes next
Rinku Singh, with 286 runs from 11 matches at a strike rate of 148.95, is still the player KKR use to score quickly at the end of the innings and, along with Raghuvanshi, could be key to how they do in the remaining games. KKR have some tough games coming up.
On May 16th KKR play Gujarat Titans, on May 20th they play Mumbai Indians, and on May 24th they play Delhi Capitals. If Raghuvanshi continues to play as he did, KKR’s 192 for 4 in Raipur might be remembered as the point where their season began to improve.
