Outgoing head coach of Kolkata Knight Riders, Brendon McCullum, had encouraging words for KKR’s unheralded middle-order batter Rinku Singh, who nearly took them across the line against Lucknow Super Giants at the DY Patil Stadium on 
Wednesday night.

Rinku scored a blistering 40 off 15 balls, laced with four sixes and two fours, before getting out on the penultimate ball as KKR finished on 208-8, just two runs short of their chase of 210. The Knight Riders needed three runs from the last two balls when Marcus Stoinis had the super-charged Rinku caught brilliantly at short extra cover with a leaping left-handed effort by West Indian Evin Lewis before castling new batter Umesh Yadav with an inch-perfect yorker to provide Lucknow a two-run victory and a place in the four-team play-offs.