New Delhi: Virat Kohli might have been adjudged the player of the match after his unbeaten half century helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Punjab Kings in an IPL 2025 march but he believes the accolade should have been given to his team-mate Devdutt Padikkal.
Kohli’s unbeaten 73 off 54 balls and Padikkal’s 61 helped RCB to a seven-wicket win over PBKS. Kohli and Padikkal shared a 103-run partnership that helped RCB chase down their target of 158 runs with seven balls to spare.
For his unbeaten knock, Kohli was chosen as the best player of the match, which he didn’t agree to.
“I thought Dev made a difference today, this award should go to him, I don’t know why they have given it to me. I can accelerate, but I want to understand the strengths of other players. Holding one end up at the moment, that’s working for us, ” Kohli said after the game.
“We’ve set ourselves up nicely. Dev (Padikkal) can play around me, maybe Rajat (Patidar) can play around me. There’s always a temptation to keep going the same way. We know in a run chase in T20 cricket, one partnership is enough. If need be, I can accelerate.
“It was a very important game for us. When you go from 8 (points) to 10, it makes a massive difference. We have played some amazing cricket away from home. The mindset has to be to get 2 points in every game,” he said.
Kohli set the record for most fifty plus scores in the tournament’s history. His 73 not out was his 67th fifty-plus score, one more than Australian David Warner’s haul.
Kohli has scored eight centuries and 59 fifties so far, while Warner made four tons and 62 fifties. The former India skipper has now amassed 8,326 overall IPL runs and has made 322 runs from eight games this season.
The right hand batter said addition of quality players in the auction has given their team a lot of balance that is giving dividends in matches.
“A very good auction for us. We got the team we wanted. They (franchise owners) knew exactly whom they wanted. It’s coming together nicely. That was missing in all the other seasons. You can see that intensity and feistyness,” the 36-year-old said.
Kohli’s unbeaten 73 off 54 balls and Padikkal’s 61 helped RCB to a seven-wicket win over PBKS. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
