Rajat Patidar, captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, admitted to feeling pressured before the match but attributed his ease of transition to Virat Kohli’s soothing presence and the bowlers’ effective implementation of the team’s tactics.

In the inaugural match of the IPL 2025 here on Saturday, Patidar led his team to a seven-wicket victory against the Kolkata Knight Riders, marking a strong start to his time as RCB captain.

Naturally, I was under pressure, but overall, I had a fantastic day. I want to see more days like these. During the post-match presentation, Patidar said, “It feels great to captain Virat Kohli, he supports a lot, and it’s a great opportunity to learn from one of the best.”

After KKR got off to a fast start with Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine, Patidar praised spinners Krunal Pandya, who was ultimately named player of the match, and leg-spinner Suyash Sharma for reversing the tide of the contest.

“It didn’t matter that Suyash was giving up runs; we wanted to get rid of Andre Russell.” We supported him because he is our strike bowler.

“Krunal and Suyash deserve all the credit because they reached 130 in the 13th over, and the bowlers displayed bravery and tenacity,” he said.

In order to keep the hitters in check, Krunal, whose three wickets in the middle overs hampered KKR’s run, said he was trying to change up his speed.

When I came back in the eleventh over, I simply wanted to concentrate on one thing. You must discover strategies to improve your game since batters may blast sixes on a regular basis. Therefore, I tried to bowl quickly, and speed variations were helpful as well,” Krunal added.

Phil Salt said that his 95-run opening partnership with Virat Kohli set the tone for his team’s victory against KKR.

“It was crucial to establish a partnership like that because Kohli and I haven’t batted together very often.”

Salt, who moved from KKR to RCB via the players’ auction last year, said that his knowledge of the Eden Gardens helped him.

I’m familiar with the terrain, and I had a straightforward strategy going in. I wanted to continue, but I was unable to. You have to hit through the line, so batting second here makes a little difference,” he said.

Ajinkya Rahane, the captain of KKR, said that his team must become better as a whole as soon as possible.

Up until the thirteenth over, we were playing nicely, then two or three wickets shifted the tide. We must grow from our errors. When Venkatesh (Iyer) and I were batting, we believed that 210–220 was par, but we lost wickets.

“They had a great Power Play, but there was dew.” We were unable to get early wickets. He said, “We just want to get better as a team and don’t want to think too much about this game.”