New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batting ace Virat Kohli heaped praise on his side’s batting unit after they achieved a hard-fought 11-run victory against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 in Bengaluru on Thursday. Kohli said that the batters kept their focus on timing the ball rather than hitting forced shots, which helped them post a respectable total.
RCB were put in to bat first and Kohli, who opens for the franchise, struck a sublime 70 off 42 balls, also sharing a 95-run stand with Devdutt Padikkal (50 off 27) for the second wicket before some late fireworks propelled RCB to 205/5.
In response, the Royals were cruising at 110 for two but RCB extracted crucial breakthroughs in time to restrict them to 194 for nine, with Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood bagging match-winning figures of 4/33. He was adjudged the Player of the Match for his heroic spell.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Kohli said, “Look, we’ve had three pretty average games at home and we discussed a few things we need to get right as a batting unit, and we applied ourselves well to get the total on board. The pitch wasn’t as flat as the score makes it look. Dew made the ball come on nicely in the second half, and credit to Rajasthan for coming out and playing some good shots,” as quoted by PTI.
The Bengaluru side has always been on the wrong side of the toss in all of their home games, which Kohli couldn’t refrain from highlighting. “The first challenge is winning the toss (chuckles). In the second half there is always dew. We’ve struggled to put up a par score. But the template today was for one guy to bat through and the rest of the batters can go attacking, and today it really paid off,” Kohli said.
The star batter noted that there was pace and bounce in the initial few overs and said that the difference in their batting was that they forced too many shots in the last three home games, but on Thursday, they let the ball come to the bat and adjusted themselves accordingly.
RCB break home jinx
RCB finally managed a victory on their home ground this season, notably after losing three home games on trot – against Gujarat Titans (GT), Delhi Capitals (DC), and Punjab Kings (PBKS), breaking their home jinx against the Royals. Meanwhile it was a fifth consecutive loss for Rajasthan, making it their joint-longest losing streak in the IPL as the lost five in a row in 2009-10.
Sitting eighth on the points table, they next face GT on April 28, while RCB, who sit third, will be up against DC on April 27.
Virat Kohli hailed the combined batting effort from RCB against RR, which saw them register their first home win of the IPL 2025 on Thursday. For RR, it was a fifth consecutive loss of the season. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
