Kolkata (West Bengal) [India]: After defeating the free-scoring Sunrisers Hyderabad with an all-around performance in the current Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the storied Eden Gardens, Venkatesh Iyer clarified what aggressiveness meant to him and the Kolkata Knight Riders.
The 18th season of the lucrative league began with a run of poor results for Venkatesh, the record signing of the reigning champions. Before escaping the shackles against the Sunrisers, the vice captain of KKR had only scored three and six in his first two appearances.
In the 13th over, the Knight Riders faltered at 106/4 with the removal of Angkrish Raghuvanshi. Upping the ante, Venkatesh scored a scorching 60 off 29 deliveries at a riotous strike rate of 206.90, which was dotted with three towering maximums and seven boundaries.
The reigning champions reached 200/6 thanks to his single-handed performance and Rinku Singh’s explosive 32*, which was 80 runs more than the visitors could muster.
“It’s critical that we demonstrate good but appropriate purpose. It’s positive if I continue to tonk everything even when we are 50/6, but that is incorrect. During the press conference after the game, he informed reporters that being aggressive does not entail hitting every ball for sixes.
It all comes down to how well you comprehend the circumstances and how you can use them to your advantage. And it is the true nature of aggressiveness. We don’t want to be the side that gets out for 70 when we’re playing poorly and scores 250 when we’re playing well. We aim to be a squad that can immediately grasp the circumstances and the pitch. should evaluate the par score and aim for 20 runs over par,” he said.
Venkatesh said that although though they scored a respectable number, they weren’t entirely at ease with it, particularly while playing the very productive Sunrisers. He praised Vaibhav Arora for turning the flow of the match in their favor during his Player of the Match stretch on the powerplay.
“Even after scoring 220, sometimes we feel that they can chase it,” he said. However, we were always aware that a really aggressive squad always runs the danger of losing wickets. We wanted to take advantage of it. Vaibhav Arora, one of our bowlers, took wickets during the powerplay. It is also possible for a team that smashes every ball to lose early. “And we wanted to take advantage of that,” he continued.
In the powerplay, Vaibhav shook Hyderabad’s top order by dismissing powerful southpaws Travis Head (4) and Ishan Kishan (2) at a low cost. In the middle overs, he resumed his assault and outplayed Heinrich Klaasen, who was dangerous, to return with figures of 3/29.
Kolkata easily defeated the Sunrisers by 80 runs, moving up to fifth place with four points, with to Vaibhav’s impactful spell setting the pace.
