Krunal Pandya Highlights 'Small Things' Which Helped RCB Clinch Triumph Over RR, Hails Phil Salt-Virat Kohli's Partnership

IPL 2025: Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) sealed an 11-run triumph over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 42nd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, on Thursday, April 24th.

Josh Hazlewood was named the 'Player of the Match' following his four-wicket haul and gave just 33 runs in his four-over spell at an economy rate of 8.20. Krunal Pandya also shone against the Royals as he picked up two wickets in his four-over spell at an economy rate of 7.80.

ALSO READ: RCB Euphoric After Claiming Their First Home Win In IPL 2025 Season, Defeat RR By 11 Runs At Chinnaswamy Stadium

In the first inning, Virat Kohli displayed a stunning performance, scoring 70 runs from 42 balls at a strike rate of 166.67. He hammered 8 fours and 2 sixes during his time on the crease. He played a crucial opening partnership of 61 runs with Phil Salt (26), which helped RCB to get a kickstart. In the end, Devdutt Padikkal's cameo of 50 runs powered RCB to 2025/5 in the first inning.

During the run chase, Yashasvi Jaiswal (49) and Dhruv Jurel (47) were the only top batters for the Royals in the second inning and took RR to 194/9, conceding an 11-run defeat against RCB.

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Krunal Pandya Reflects On RCB's Win Over RR In IPL 2025

While speaking in a video shared on RCB's social media handle, Krunal Pandya said that scoring 56 runs in the powerplay helped the hosts to get an upper hand in the game. He added that Phil Salt and Virat Kohli's opening partnership was also very crucial.

“Sometimes what happens is that you always highlight the performance which is quite evident and visible but what I felt is that in powerplay to get 6 overs, 56 runs, though we always are used to watching Salty (Salt) scoring at a strike rate of 180-200 but again to stitch that partnership in that phase, those 24 (26) runs for me watching was so crucial to lay that platform and then obviously what Virat and Dev (Devdutt Padikkal) did was we spoke about but again for me those small things matters a lot,” Krunal said in the video.

RCB Hold Third Place On IPL 2025 Standings

Following the win, RCB moved to the third place on IPL 2025 standings, with 12 points and have a net run rate of +0.428. On the other hand, RR stand in the eighth place with four points and have a net run rate of -0.625.