Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane has advocated for his batters to set their performance in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) as an example and carry this template for the rest of IPL 2025.
After collapsing for a mere 116 in their previous outing, against Mumbai Indians (MI), KKR bounced back in style putting up 200 for 6 against SRH in Kolkata on Thursday. This despite them losing both openers by the third over. Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi consolidated the innings before Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh went big in the death.
"The discussion when we lost two wickets, Quinny [Quinton de Kock] and Sunny [Sunil Narine] was all about consolidate till six overs, play with intent but play cricketing shots and then when we have wickets in hand after 10-11 overs, guys down the order can get as many runs as possible. So that's what we wanted to do," Rahane said after KKR thrashed SRH by 80 runs.
"This game was really important for us and winning with a big margin, that was really crucial. I think starting off with batting first, losing the toss, even we wanted to bowl first on this wicket.
"Overall, I am really happy with the batting unit. The last two games were not up to the mark for us. But again, we learned a lot from our mistakes and it's again staying in the moment. This game has happened but this is a great example for us as a batting unit to learn from this game and take it forward."
Another crucial moment in the KKR innings was when the Rahane-Raghuvanshi stand ended on 81 with the score on 97 for 3 in 11 overs. Ten balls later, Raghuvanshi also fell and there were two new batters in the middle. KKR could have capitulated but Iyer and Rinku stood firm. They started slowly, but soon found their stride and smoked 78 runs in the last five overs to give KKR a grandstand finish.
"See, the chat when Rinku and Venkatesh were batting it was all about, last 30 balls we can get 50-60 runs on this wicket," Rahane said. "Those guys can play brilliant shots. We all saw that tonight.
"Ramandeep again was sitting in the dugout. Dre [Andre Russell] was sitting in the dugout and Moeen [Ali] was also ready. So, it was all about play normally till 15 overs and then take it on."
Rahane also heaped praise on his bowlers, in particular Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana. Arora, coming in as an impact sub, picked 3 for 29, including the wickets of Travis Head, Ishan Kishan and later Heinrich Klaasen, while Rana picked the key wicket of Abhishek Sharma as SRH were reduced to 9 for 3 in 2.1 overs. It was always tough going thereon.
"Credit goes to Vaibhav and Harshit as well. Bowling in that powerplay, difficult overs, especially Vaibhav picking up those two wickets was amazing," Rahane said.
"Initially, we thought 170-180 on this wicket would be a really good total. I mean, we got 20-30 runs extra because of the partnership of Rinku and Venkatesh. We saw how SRH bowled. The slower balls were gripping a bit. We had three quality spinners. Moeen, unfortunately, couldn't bowl tonight. But Varun [Chakravarthy] and Sunny bowled really well."