Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) got the pitch they wanted and didn’t put their foot off the gas with the bat or ball in the repeat of last year’s final against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Eden Gardens. It wasn’t a belter as it spun a bit but didn’t have any demons on the surface as well and if the batters got set, they got value for the shots. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh all had to get their eyes in before attacking and the long batting line-up came to their rescue for the final five-over launch that saw the hosts score 78 runs.
On the other hand, the big-hitting Sunrisers were shot out for 120 and were handed their biggest loss in IPL history, with respect to the margin, by 80 runs. Iyer, who was coming into IPL 2025 with a big price tag, had low scores in the first couple of games before firing at the death with the bat, scoring 60 off 29. Iyer also took a shot at SRH while defining what aggression means to him saying that being positive is good but the intent should also be correct and not careless.
“It’s very important for us to show positive but correct intent,” Iyer said at the post-match press conference while reiterating that assessing the situation is also important. “If we are 50 for 6 and I still go and tonk everything, that’s positive, but that’s not correct.
“Aggression does not mean tonking every ball for sixes. It’s about how you understand the conditions, how you are able to maximize the conditions in your favour. And that is what aggression actually is.
“We don’t want to be the team that scores 250 when we’re playing well and when we’re not, we get out for 70. “We want to be a team who understands the pitch and the conditions quickly. To assess the par score and try to make 20 runs above par,” Iyer added. Sunrisers have now lost three matches in a row where their two big-hitting openers and combined with Ishan Kishan at No 3 have failed to fire with the bat after having begun the tournament by piling on 286 against the Rajasthan Royals.
