Kolkata Knight Riders batter Venkatesh Iyer shared that the key factor in his match-winning partnership was with captain Shreyas after their win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 29, Friday. However, Venkatesh scored a brilliant half-century while Shreyas Iyer stayed till the end as KKR registered two wins in two and moved to second place on the points table as well. Meanwhile, after the openers fell, the onus was on Venkatesh and Shreyas to steady the ship and they added a 75-run stand, which helped KKR win by 7 wickets.

Speaking to the IPL’s website along with his captain, Venkatesh Iyer said,  “It was important for me to carry on the momentum. We have always taken about taking the momentum through, get a platform and then banking on it. That’s what Narine did. He gave us an amazing start and all I had to do was go on and capitalise on that. When you came in, I thought the communication amongst us was amazing. Which bowler to take on, which end to look for shots and that really helped us.”

However, the track in Chinnaswamy was a slower one and Venkatesh Iyer felt it became better to bat in the second innings as well. He also lauded Shreyas for choosing to bowl first after winning the toss as well.

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“The wicket got better. Credit to you, you won the toss and chose to bowl first, which was a very good decision. It got better to bat. I think for us to understand that ball was being bowled at a slower pace, it wasn’t coming on to the bat as nicely. So I think that was very important for us and credit to Narine,” said Venkatesh.

Meanwhile, he also lauded all-rounder Sunil Narine for taking off pressure from batters with his swashbuckling knock in the powerplay. However, during the match, Venkatesh smashed a half-century but he seemed to have injured his back during the knock while playing a shot.

“Let us see how my back is. I will know after a scan. The ball was coming on well in the evening. Credit goes to Sunil Narine, whose runs took the pressure off us. We just had to finish the formalities. With a platform like that, you have to maximise (on his mindset). Also, my fiance was here today so it was a special day. (Facing Vijaykumar Vyshak) Pace-off in totality was tough but if fast bowlers bowled pace-on, it was easy to take them to the cleaners. It happened with us in our bowling innings too,” said Venkatesh Iyer in the post-match presentation.