Nitish battles on and off the field

Things couldn’t have gotten worse for Nitish Rana. At play, while the 26-year-old left-handed batsman struggled to get past three golden ducks in the last five matches in the ongoing IPL in the UAE, his team, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), was struggling to find a spot in the playoffs. Added to it all, things have been going south for him even personally. His wife, mother and mother-in-law have all been found COVID-19 positive. The cricketer’s father-in-law, Surinder Marwah, who was a cancer patient, had breathed his last a few days back.

“I haven’t met him for a very long now, but he’s mentally very strong and the tribute he paid for papa made him immortal,” his wife Saachi, an interior designer by profession, said exclusively over the telephone from her mother’s house in Delhi, where she and her mother are quarantined. By tribute, Saachi means the half-century Nitish had scored in one of the recent matches in Abu Dhabi, which he dedicated to his deceased father-in-law. “He’ll be back stronger,” Saachi adds hopefully.

Daddy’s watching

Though Nitish Rana’s father, Darasingh Rana, was disappointed with his son’s three golden ducks, he claims to be “satisfied” with his team’s win over Rajasthan Royals on Sunday. “I watched the entire match, but my wife, Satish Kumari, who has tested positive and was isolating in the other room, switched off the TV when Nitish got out first ball,” says Darasingh with a chuckle. On Sunday, Nitish took nearly 14 seconds for the DRS call. Talking about it, Darasingh adds, “Yes, he took such a long time for a caught-behind dismissal. Perhaps he may have thought that the ball did not touch the bat. He even consulted his partner Shubman Gill, who too was not sure.”