Following Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) hard-fought 11-run win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their IPL 2025 encounter on April 25, the team's key batter Virat Kohli commended the batting unit's performance. Kohli highlighted their strategic approach of focusing on timing the ball effectively rather than resorting to forceful shots, which ultimately enabled them to post a competitive total.
RCB down RR by 11 runs
After being asked to bat first, Kohli played a fluent innings of 70 runs off 42 balls and forged a crucial 95-run partnership for the second wicket with Devdutt Padikkal, who scored a quickfire 50 off 27 balls. A late surge of runs further propelled RCB to a total of 205 for five wickets.
In response, Rajasthan Royals were comfortably placed at 110 for two wickets. However, RCB staged a remarkable comeback, restricting the Royals to 194/9. Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood played an instrumental role in this turnaround, returning with match-winning figures of 4/33.
"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," Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
Virat Kohli on RCB's winning formula
This victory against the Rajasthan Royals marked a significant moment for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, as it was their first win at their home ground this season, ending a streak of three consecutive losses at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Adding to their home woes, RCB has also had an unfavorable run with the coin toss in all of their home matches so far this season. This win gave a lot to RCB, a winning template as Kohli admitted after the match.
"The first challenge is winning the toss (chuckles). In the second half there is always dew. We've struggled to put on a par score. The template is now pretty simple, for one guy to bat through and the others to attack around him. Devdutt and I know this ground well. Just wanted to let Salt to his thing at the top," Kohli further stated.
"There is pace and bounce in the first few overs with the new ball. Today we just tried to time the ball and keep enough pressure on the opposition to keep giving us boundary balls," the batting juggernaut concluded.
With this win RCB rose to third in the IPL 2025 points table with sixth win, while RR remained eighth in the standings with their seventh defeat in the ongoing season. RCB will next take on Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 27 at the Arun Jaitley stadium while RR will lock horns with Gujarat Titans (GT) on April 28 in Jaipur.