Virat Kohli, the star batsman of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), praised his captain Rajat Patidar for his brilliant batting performance in their IPL 2025 match against Mumbai Indians on Monday, April 7.
RCB Overcome Early Setbacks to Post a Huge Total
Virat Kohli was also impressed by the batting performances of Devdutt Padikkal and Jitesh Sharma, and he praised the RCB batters for their efforts.
RCB lost the toss and was asked to bat first by MI. The visiting team faced an early setback when explosive opener Phil Salt was dismissed in the first over. However, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal quickly took control and started attacking the Mumbai bowlers, putting together a 91-run partnership.
Padikkal was dismissed for 37 off 22 balls, but Rajat Patidar joined Kohli, and together they added 48 runs in just 31 balls. RCB lost two quick wickets when Kohli (67 off 42) and Liam Livingstone (0 off 2) were dismissed.
Virat Kohli Praises Rajat Patidar’s Brilliant Batting Performance
Despite the setbacks, Patidar (64 off 32) and Jitesh Sharma (40* off 19) put on a remarkable 69-run partnership off 27 balls, guiding RCB to a massive total of 221/5.
During the mid-innings break, Kohli shared his satisfaction with his team’s batting performance and gave special praise to Devdutt Padikkal for his contribution. He said:
“That was pretty good. After losing a wicket on the second ball, we countered pretty nicely. Dev played a brilliant impact knock for us, really changed the momentum towards us. I got a few going as well. That partnership was really important for us to set that total on the board.”
Talking about his innings, the batting legend said it’s important to adapt and evolve the game to meet the demands of T20 cricket. He added:
“My strength is to get my touch and feel of the ball early on, then I can play the shots I that I want to. I tried to innovate a bit, tried to play different shots off spin as well and then tried to hit different areas of the ground. You need to keep evolving your game and keep up with the demands of the situation in T20 cricket. When I time the ball nicely early on, I have better chances to contribute.”
Kohli Expresses Confidence in Devdutt Padikkal’s Upcoming Big Knock
Kohli also praised Devdutt Padikkal for his impactful knock and expressed hope that he would score a big innings soon. He said:
“(On Padikkal) When Salty goes early, one of the guys needs to have an impact straightaway and Dev kind of did that for us. He’s done that for 2-3 games now, a big score is around the corner for him. He deserves it, he’s hitting the ball so well.”
In the end, Kohli described the innings played by Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma as “great innings” and expressed hope that RCB could break their long-standing jinx and win at Wankhede Stadium. He added:
“That partnership was important for us to go deeper into the innings, get guys like Jitesh Livi and Tim David towards the back-end of the innings. What Rajat did is what Rajat does most often. It was a great innings by those two as well – Rajat and Jitesh really got us those extra 20-25 runs. One of their spinners was out of the game. It was difficult for the chinaman to bowl. That gave us 20-25 runs. The wicket wasn’t as straightforward. Hopefully we break the jinx today.”
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