After winning three matches consecutively, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) continued their plunder by thrashing Rajasthan Royals (RR) by ten wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
Batting first, Sanju Samson & Co. found themselves in tatters when RCB bowlers sent the top four batsmen back to the pavilion for a mere score of 43. Shivam Dube (46) and Rahul Tewatia (40) steadied their innings before losing their wicket in death overs. Mohammed Siraj was the pick of the RCB bowlers with 3-27 in his allotted quota of four overs. The Royals put up a decent score of 177/9 in their 20 overs.
In reply, RCB batsmen Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal took the attack to the opposition from the first ball itself. The openers shared an imperishable stand of 181 runs and won the match with 21 balls to spare. Scoring a swashbuckling hundred, Padikkal looked in the same form he had in the last year’s IPL when he was the top scorer for his team. For most of the innings, captain Kohli (72) played second fiddle to the 20-year-old.
Talking about the same in the post-match presentation, Kohli said that he had the best seat in the house to watch his partner. He further praised Padikkal’s last year IPL campaign as well. The Delhi-born also asserted that Padikkal’s acceleration was the best execution of their plan.
“It was an outstanding innings, he batted really well for his first season last time as well. Bit of a talk about accelerating after 40-50, this was the best way to put it to rest. Great talent, great one to look forward in the future. I had the best seat in the house,” Kohli said during the post-match presentation ceremony.
The Bangalore-skipper further clarified that one can’t always be the dominant guy in a T20 partnership. In this match, he assisted Padikkal and also picked his spots and scored runs.
“I think T20 is all about partnership batting. You can’t always be the guy going dominant. When one guy goes, it’s important for me to rotate strike, and vice versa. Tonight my role was different and I wanted to hang in there. In the end I picked my spots, the pitch was good,” said the 32-year-old.
The veteran batsman also revealed his conversation with Padikkal before the latter was about to reach his hundred. The youngster insisted the captain to finish the match and was ready to sacrifice his century, but Kohli advised Padikkal to get to his well-earned milestone. Kohli was contented as he knew that Padikkal’s innings would make him confident for upcoming matches and help the team.
“We spoke about it [the 100], he said finish it off. He said many more to come, I told him you tell me that after you get the first one. I want him to build from here and really help the team. He deserved to get the hundred today, flawless innings,” Kohli said of Padikkal.
Meanwhile, with his knock of 72 runs from 47 balls, Kohli became the first man in IPL to cross 6000 runs landmark.
