Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer believes that playing aggressive cricket is positive but not correct when the team has already lost half of the side. Venkatesh, who started the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 with a tring of low scores. In his first two outings, KKR's vice-captain registered just 3 and 6 before breaking the shackles against the Sunrisers.
After Angkrish Raghuvanshi's dismissal, the Knight Riders were at 106/4 in the 13th over. Venkatesh smashed the bowlers to all over the ground and fired a blistering 60 from 29 deliveries at a strike rate of 206.90, studded with seven boundaries and three towering maximums.
His single-handed effort, combined with Rinku Singh's unbeaten 32*, lifted the defending champions to 200/6, a total 80 runs better than what KKR could achieve.
"It's very important for us to show positive but correct intent. If we are 50/6 and I still go and tonk everything, that's positive, but that's not correct. Aggression does not mean tonking every ball for sixes," he told reporters in the post-match press conference.
"It's about how you understand the conditions and how you are able to maximize the conditions in your favour. And that is what aggression actually is. We don't want to be the team that scores 250 when we're playing well, and when we're not, we get out for 70. We want to be a team that understands the pitch and the conditions quickly. To assess the par score and try to make 20 runs above par," he added.
Despite scoring a good total, Venkatesh revealed that they were not comfortable about it, considering the batting lineup of SRH. He lavished praise on Vaibhav Arora for his Player of the Match spell in the powerplay that shifted the tides in their favour.
"Even after scoring 220, sometimes we feel that they can chase it," he said. "But we always knew that a team which is ultra-aggressive always carries the risk of getting wickets. That's what we wanted to exploit. We have Vaibhav Arora, who bowls in the powerplay to pick wickets, and he did that. A team that hits every ball also has the chance of going down early. And that's what we wanted to exploit,' he said.
Vaibhav rattled the top order of SRH in the powerplay, he picked up explosive batters Travis Head (4) and Ishan Kishan (2) cheaply. He returned to the attack in the middle overs and got wicket of the dangerous Heinrich Klaasen to return with figures of 3/29. KKR will now face Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 8 at the same venue.