Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli had nothing but encouraging and positive words for his teammate Devdutt Padikkal, who on Thursday, slammed his maiden IPL century.
Virat Kohli Praises Devdutt Padikkal
Padikkal and Kohli stitched an unbeaten 181-run partnership as RCB gunned down the 178-run target set by Rajasthan Royals in Match 16 of IPL 2021 in Mumbai.
Kohli said that watching Padikkal, who scored over 400 runs last year in his maiden IPL season, he had the best seat in the house and the rate at which he was scoring runs confined his batting to another quieter role.
“It was an outstanding innings, he batted really well for his first season last time as well. Bit of a talk about accelerating after 40-50, this was the best way to put it to rest. Great talent, great one to look forward in the future. I had the best seat in the house,” Kohli said during the post-match presentation ceremony.
.@devdpd07 scored a magnificent ton & won the Man of the Match award as @RCBTweets beat #RR. 👏👏 #VIVOIPL #RCBvRR
Scorecard 👉 https://t.co/dch5R4juzp pic.twitter.com/cg8YBV8FPO
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 22, 2021
“I think T20 is all about partnership batting. You can’t always be the guy going dominant. When one guy goes, it’s important for me to rotate strike and vice versa. Tonight my role was different and I wanted to hang in there. In the end, I picked my spots, the pitch was good.”
Kohli himself hit a half-century and remained not out on 72 off 47 balls and in the process became the first player in the history of IPL to score 6000 runs. After starting off sedately, with Padikkal going guns, Kohli found his groove and played an array of strokes, hitting six fours and three sixes. But the RCB captain kept all his praises for his younger teammate, revealing the conversation the two batsmen had when Padikkal was approaching his century.
🗣️🗣️ “He deserved to get that hundred.”@RCBTweets captain @imVkohli lauds @devdpd07 as he scored his maiden #VIVOIPL 💯. 👏👏#RCBvRR pic.twitter.com/kDM69pAgaz
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 22, 2021
“We spoke about it [the 100], he said finish it off. He said many more to come, I told him you tell me that after you get the first one. I want him to build from here and really help the team. He deserved to get the hundred today, flawless innings,” Kohli said of Padikkal.
RCB will face CSK for their next league match on Sunday at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
