Rinku Singh waited. He waited till he struck his weightiest knock of the season; he waited till he took five catches of varying levels of strain; he waited till he thrashed the winning runs himself in the Super Over. And then he uncorked his emotions. He leapt and swiped the air, he kissed the Ekana turf, baring its grainy black soil. He gazed forlornly at the skies. If a drop of tear rolled down his cheek, it blended with the sweat dripping off his temple.
It has been a tough year for him. He lost his father during the T20 World Cup; he lost his spot in India’s playing eleven; his IPL form wobbled after the bright start, his club tottered at the bottom; he was quietly slipping out of public imagination; critics breathed down his neck. He needed a knock that could put a smile back on his face, and those of his supporters, one of relevance and substance, perhaps not so much to prove the world that he is not a one-knock wonder, as to convince himself of his resounding virtues. “Sometimes the mind just doesn’t work when you’re struggling,” he admitted after his half-century against Rajasthan Royals.
It’s an indescribably wretched feeling. The batsman knows his failings; he knows the solutions; he is sweating in the nets and trying to be the batsman he once was. Yet, he keeps failing. The 53 against Royals reinstated hope and belief, but something was still pulling him back, something invisible clutching at his throat.
Sometimes the circumstances conspire; being part of a sinking ship doesn’t aid comebacks. But when you are neck deep in rough seas and the only urge is to survive, an unstoppable spirit pulls them over the currents. At 34 for four, when he walked out to bat, he finally knew that he had time to trench in, find rhythm, take the game deep and then summon the heavy artillery. His game has always been about incremental shifting of gears rather than a sudden spurt of explosion. Even in his most famous knock, when he struck five sixes on the spin to nail a thriller, he was eight off 12 balls, before blasting 33 off nine.