Virat Kohli had a silent outing against the Rajasthan Royals as he fell to New Zealand fast bowler, Trent Boult, on the very first ball that he faced. However, this did very little to keep him silent on the field as he claimed two important catches, one each of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal as RCB picked up a thrilling win over the Royals.

Talking at the post-match interview, the RCB skipper for the day opened up at length about how the Royal Challengers placed and timed their performance, concluding on a note of praise for his players who posted a fine display to leave the Rajasthan Royals short of the finish line by seven runs.

He started the interview by talking about the pitch and the toss, stating, “To be honest, we had this discussion during toss. The pitch looked dry and I mentioned to the guys that they will have 10 overs under lights which is very difficult out here. The advantage was the ball got scuffed up. However, with the impact player rule and the extra batter, games are always on. That's why so many close games.”

Kohli also showered praise on the Faf Du Plessis and the Glenn Maxwell show, adding, “The counter-attack from Maxi and Faf was even better than the Chennai game, it was a better surface that day. Maxi took the game away in just four overs. We thought 160 might be enough but the way they batted helped us to 190.”

The former Indian captain then shifted his focus to Mohammed Siraj’s beautiful delivery that bagged the wicket of Jos Buttler, as he said, “Phenomenal, he's got him (Buttler) out in the past and he's bowling as well as I've ever seen. Running in with the new ball he shows that intent and the confidence, he has the Purple Cap and for good reason. He's leading the attack and hopefully Josh comes in next game.”

He concluded by heaping praise on Harshal Patel’s three-fer, adding, “He always bowls the tough overs, not easy at Chinnaswamy. He's closed out games against DC and today as well. So massive credit to the way he has performed. We trust him to deliver at the death. Whenever Hazlewood comes in, we might look like a different attack.”