IPL 2025: After thrashing Hyderabad, Kolkata skippers share insights

Kolkata: After making a dominating win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 15th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on Thursday, Kolkata Knight Riders captain and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer talked about their teams intend in Eden Gardens. After crashing down against Mumbai Indians, the victory against SRH is a good comeback for the defending champions.

KKR's innings started on shaky ground, as Quinton de Kock (1) and Sunil Narine (7) fell cheaply. However, Rahane himself (38 off 27) and young Angkrish Raghuvanshi (50 off 32) steadied the ship, ensuring that KKR didn’t lose control. When SRH bowlers hardened their grip, Rahane and Raghuvanshi left, and the replacements were vice-captain Iyer and Rinku Singh. SRH bowlers could have underestimated both, or Iyer would have turned too lucky to get deliveries at his hitting range. Because before Iyer and Singh, KKR was struggling at 109/4 in 13.2 overs. However, the duo took the team total to 200, which SRH failed to attain.

After the match, Rahane said that it was significant for his team to win by a large margin.

"This game was really important for us, and winning with a margin - that was really crucial. Batting first and losing the toss, we wanted to bowl first on this wicket. When we lost two wickets, the discussion was about consolidating and then when we had wickets in hand after 11-12 overs, guys lower down the order could score as many runs as possible. We learned a lot from our mistakes. It is about staying in the moment now. A great example for us (as a batting group) to learn from this game," said Rahane.

Meanwhile, Iyer, who found it difficult to note the lines and lengths of deliveries initially, said after the match that aggression isn't about hitting every ball for a maximum; it's about showing correct intent. He smashed a brilliant 60 off just 29 balls with seven fours and three sixes.

"A basic but very important meaning of aggression is to show positive but correct intent when we play cricket," Iyer explained.

"If we are 50 for six and I still go and tonk everything, that's positive but not correct. If we are to call ourselves smart cricketers, it's very important to read any situation and then react accordingly."

Defending a challenging total, KKR’s bowlers came out all guns blazing. SRH got off to a disastrous start, losing Travis Head for four runs to Vaibhav Arora on the very second ball of the chase. Harshit Rana followed up with a brilliant over, dismissing Abhishek Sharma with a deceptive slower ball. SRH’s aggressive left-handed top three were all back in the pavilion within the first three overs, leaving them in deep trouble at 9/3.

Arora continued to impress, finishing with figures of 4-1-29-3, dismissing Heinrich Klaasen with a well-directed slower bouncer in a moment of high drama. Sunil Narine, celebrating his 200th wicket for KKR, bowled an economical spell, though he missed out on dismissing Klaasen due to an unspotted edge.

Chakravarthy (3-22) proved lethal in the middle overs, taking two wickets in the 16th over, including the prized scalp of Pat Cummins. Andre Russell (2-20) cleaned up the tail with a sharp caught-and-bowled effort as SRH collapsed for 120 in just 17 overs.