Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane Created an unwanted record in his team's win against Rajasthan Royals at the Eden Gardens.
Chasing a small target of 156 after brilliant bowling from spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine, Rahane was out for a duck on two balls, flailing on a Nandre Berger length delivery and caught by Dhruv Jurel behind the stumps. With this, he has now become the batsman who has been out on zero the most number of times as an opener in IPL.
Most number of times out on zero as an opener in IPL
| Serial number. | player name | number of ducks |
| 1 | Ajinkya Rahane | 12 |
| 2 | Parthiv Patel | 11 |
| 3 | Shikhar Dhawan | 10 |
| 3 | Gautam Gambhir | 10 |
| 4 | david warner | 9 |
This season has been a mixed bag for Rahane with the bat. He started the season with an innings of 67 off 40 balls against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, but followed that up with four single-digit scores in six innings. He has scored 152 runs in seven matches at an average of 25.33. His captaincy decisions have also been criticized, as well as questions have been raised on the rotation of his bowlers.
Knight Riders finally got their first win of IPL 2026 in their seventh game. Royals, batting first, ended their innings at 155/9 despite a strong 81-run partnership between their young openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi. Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine tightened the screws in the middle overs, with Varun finishing with figures of 3/14 as he looked like the bowler who has been a threat to India in this format. Narine provided excellent support to Varun, finishing with figures of 2/26.
Knight Riders started chasing the target slowly and were at 85/6 in the 14th over when Rinku Singh also joined in. Anukul RoyTook Knight Riders home with an unbeaten 76-run partnership off 37 balls. Rinku remained unbeaten after scoring 53 runs in 34 balls, while Roy was out after scoring 29 runs in 16 balls.
The win lifted Knight Riders to ninth place on the table with three points, overtaking struggling Mumbai Indians.
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