Ajinkya Rahane suffers hand injury in victory over Delhi Capitals

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane will be assessed by the team's medical staff on Wednesday to determine the severity of the injury he suffered to his right hand while fielding in his side's 14-run win over Delhi Capitals (DC).

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Rahane played down the extent of the injury. "Not bad," he said. "I'll be okay. I'll be fine." For now, as per KKR allrounder Anukul Roy, Rahane had "a couple of stitches", which should take "only two-three days" to heal. KKR's next game is on May 4, against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at home. Rahane

Rahane was fielding at short cover when he was struck on the hand by a ball drilled at him by Faf du Plessis off the bowling of Andre Russell. The ball deflected towards mid-off for a single, and Rahane immediately started to head off the field to receive medical attention.

He did not return to the field for the rest of the match, and had his hand heavily strapped. With Venkatesh Iyer, Rahane's vice-captain, substituted out of the match for Vaibhav Arora, KKR's Impact Player, Sunil Narine was called into action and led the team for the final nine overs of their bowling innings.

Rahane said that Narine's final two overs - in which he dismissed Axar Patel, Tristan Stubbs and du Plessis - were decisive. "204 on that wicket was good, but I thought we were 15 runs short, frankly. We were going really well as a batting unit. But again, you're chasing 204, you know, as a fielding team, you are one or two wickets away, and that's what happened.

KKR sit seventh, with nine points from their first ten matches, but Rahane said that his team could take confidence from the memory of their late run to the play-offs in 2021. "That's always been the talk when we are not doing well," he said. "But again, it's in the past. For us, what's important is staying in the moment, taking confidence from this game and moving forward."