The player who bowled a miraculous over in the 2007 T20 World Cup, his career ended in just 6 years.

By Samira Vishwas On Dec 6, 2025

Rudra Pratap Singh Birthday: Former fast bowler of the Indian cricket team, RP Singh is celebrating his 40th birthday today on 6 December 2025. RP Singh has bowled many brilliant spells for the Indian team and played an important role in winning the match. RP Singh had compensated well for the absence of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra. It was in the presence of both of them that another left arm fast bowler RP Singh firmly established himself in the Indian team and achieved great success in a period of time.

RP Singh was born on 6 December 1985 in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. His full name is Rudra Pratap Singh. Rudra dreamed of becoming a cricketer since childhood. He was a very effective left arm bowler. His balls had pace as well as swing which often troubled the batsmen. Because of this, RP Singh got great success in domestic and under-19 cricket.

Had a great performance in the Under-19 World Cup

RP Singh’s early cricket journey was very impressive. His performance in the Under-19 World Cup held in Bangladesh in 2004 caught everyone’s attention. After this, he consistently performed strongly for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy. Due to his excellent performance in domestic cricket, he got a chance to join the Indian ODI team in 2005. Soon after his debut, he proved himself and made his mark as the main bowler in the team captained by MS Dhoni.

Played an important role in winning the 2007 World Cup

RP Singh’s achievement in T20 cricket was also memorable. In 2007, the Indian team won the title of the first T20 World Cup played in South Africa, in which RP Singh played an important role. He made the record of being the second most successful bowler in the tournament by taking 12 wickets in 7 matches. For the next two years, he played T20 matches continuously for India and contributed in helping the team win on many occasions.

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That miraculous over of the World Cup

RP Singh took 3 wickets in his name in the final of the 2007 World Cup. Pakistan had lost two wickets at the score of 26 runs, which were taken by RP Singh. RP had sent opener batsman Mohammad Hafeez back to the pavilion for 1 run and then Kamran Akmal for zero runs. From here the path to victory became difficult for Pakistan. Chasing the target failed for them. India won this match by 5 runs. RP Singh took 3 wickets for 26 runs in 4 overs. At that time, Mahendra Singh Dhoni considered RP Singh’s important contribution in winning the World Cup.

Last match played in 2011

RP Singh’s cricket journey started on a bright note, but after 2009, his form and fitness started declining, due to which he had to be dropped from the team. Unfortunately, he could not even be a part of the 2011 ODI World Cup. After Zaheer Khan’s injury, he got his last chance in the Indian team in September-October 2011, but his performance in that series was ineffective and after that he did not get a comeback in the team.

Between 2005 and 2011, RP Singh took 40 wickets in 14 Test matches, 69 wickets in 58 ODIs and 15 wickets in 10 T20 matches. He took 90 wickets in 82 matches in IPL. He retired from cricket in 2018 and after that remained active in commentary. Presently RP Singh is also contributing as a selector of the Indian team.