Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 7 (ANI): Following his half-century against Mumbai Indians (MI), star Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Virat Kohli hailed Devdutt Padikkal and skipper Rajat Patidar for their valuable contributions and expressed importance of evolving his game with changing times in the shortest format of the sport.

Fans at Wankhede Stadium became witnesses to a power-packed performance from RCB batters, as Virat and Patidar registered brilliant fifties while Padikkal and Jitesh Sharma played fine supporting hands against MI at Wankhede Stadium.

Speaking after the innings, Virat said, 'That was pretty good. After losing a wicket on the second ball (of Phil Salt), we countered pretty nicely. Dev (Padikkal) played a brilliant impact knock for us, really changed the momentum towards us. I got a few going as well. That partnership was really important for us to set that total on the board. My strength is to get my touch and feel of the ball early on, then I can play the shots that I want to. I tried to innovate a bit, tried to play different shots off spin as well and then tried to hit different areas of the ground. You need to keep evolving your game and keep up with the demands of the situation in T20 cricket. When I time the ball nicely early on, I have better chances to contribute.'

Virat hailed Padikkal for his impactful cameos during last few games when early wickets fell for RCB and feels that a huge score is just around the corner for the left hander.

'That partnership was important for us to go deeper into the innings, get guys like Jitesh Livi (Liam Livingstone) and Tim David towards the back end of the innings. What Rajat did is what Rajat does most often. It was a great inning by those two as well - Rajat and Jitesh got us those extra 20-25 runs. One of their spinners was out of the game. It was difficult for the chinaman to bowl. That gave us 20-25 runs. What happened with wickets not falling was that one of their spinners was out of the game, and that played out to be an important factor for us because we knew once the spinner is out of the game, then the fast bowler with shorter boundaries will find it tough.'

'The wicket was not as straightforward as it seemed. Hardik was taking pace off the ball consistently and was not coming onto the bat. We have a good score on the board. Hopefully, we break that jinx today (RCB have lost their last six matches vs MI at this venue). We have got a strong bowling line-up, and early inroads in the powerplay will help,' he concluded.

Coming to the match, MI won the toss and opted to field first. Though Phil Salt departed early, Virat (67 in 42 balls, with eight fours and two sixes) and Devdutt Padikkal (37 in 22 balls, with two fours and three sixes) made sure MI regretted their decision as they put on a counter-attacking 91-run stand. After the dismissal of this duo, skipper Rajat Patidar (64 in 32 balls, with five fours and four sixes) and Jitesh Sharma (40* in 19 balls, with two fours and four sixes) made sure that the run-rate never went down. RCB ended at 221/5.

Hardik Pandya (2/45), the skipper and Trent Boult (2/57) took two wickets but leaked runs. Vignesh Puthur got a wicket as well. Jasprit Bumrah delivered figures of 0/29 in four overs on his comeback.

RCB needs to defend 222 runs to register their third win of IPL 2025 and their first at Wankhede Stadium against MI since IPL 2015. (ANI)