The double-header weekend in the Indian Premier League (IPL) began with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) facing the Delhi Capitals (DC) on Saturday. After opting to bowl first, the Capitals’ bowlers did extremely well to stun the KKR top-order as they were left reeling at 42/3 in the 8th over of the innings itself. But Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine launched a counter-attack then to surprise the opposition.

Rana opened the innings in this match after several failures earlier in the season. His only fifty had come against the Delhi Capitals in the previous clash of the season and the southpaw once again pummelled their bowlers much to the delight of the KKR fans. He took his time early on and then after Narine came to the middle, both the left-handed batsmen began to deal in boundaries.

Nitish Rana looked composed in the middle and played some delightful. He got to his well-deserved fifty in the 13th over of the innings and then displayed KKR jersey with ‘Surinder’ written on it. He also looked upwards to the sky, in a way, dedicating his innings to Surinder. Soon after his gesture, the fans were excited to know who is Surinder and why did Nitish Rana show the jersey.

When we tried to dig deep in the matter, we understood that Surinder is Rana’s father-in-law (his wife Sacchi Marwah’s father) who passed away recently due to Cancer. Nitish Rana got married to Saachi Marwah on 16 February 2019. Surinder was national awardee bronze sculptor.

Nitish Rana stands tall for KKR

Meanwhile, the game against DC is a crucial one for KKR in terms of making it to the playoffs and Nitish Rana has stood up at the perfect time for his team. He struggled for the whole season but has ended up playing a crucial knock for his team and has dedicated it to his father-in-law. It was a pretty nice gesture from him after getting to a half-century and the whole dug-out stood up for him to applaud for his scintillating innings.