Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) ended their home hoodoo in IPL 2025 with a thrilling win over Rajasthan Royals at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Virat Kohli, who anchored the first innings with a composed fifty, opened up about the tactical adjustments RCB made to finally succeed at their home venue after three consecutive losses.
Kohli acknowledged RCB’s batting was below par in earlier home matches and said they needed to reassess their approach.
Virat Kohli speaks of adjustment RCB made to turn around Chinnaswamy record
“Look, we’ve had three pretty average games at home and we discussed a few things we need to get right as a batting unit and we applied ourselves well to get the total on board,” Kohli said in the post-match interaction.
RCB had previously failed to post competitive totals at Chinnaswamy — a venue known for high scores — but Kohli said the pitch wasn’t as easy as it looked.
“The pitch wasn’t as flat as the score makes it look. Dew made the ball come on nicely in the second half and credit to Rajasthan for coming out and playing some good shots.”
He also humorously pointed out how the toss plays a big role at their home ground.
“The first challenge is winning the toss [chuckles]. In the second half there is always dew. We’ve struggled to put on a par score.”
In Bengaluru, dew often makes chasing easier, so batting first becomes more difficult. RCB had struggled earlier in setting up winning totals while batting first, but they seemed to have cracked the formula this time.
Kohli elaborated on the new batting “template” RCB is following — having one set batter play through while others take calculated risks around him.
“The template is now pretty simple, for one guy to bat through and the others to attack around him. Devdutt and I know this ground well. Just wanted to let Salt do his thing at the top.”
This method was visible in the way RCB built their innings. While Phil Salt played with intent early, Kohli and Padikkal kept the scoreboard moving through smart placement and running between the wickets, before accelerating later.
Kohli also highlighted how the conditions early in the innings required a more measured approach:
“There is pace and bounce in the first few overs with the new ball. Today we just tried to time the ball and keep enough pressure on the opposition to keep giving us boundary balls.”
In other words, instead of going hard from ball one, RCB focused on rotating strike and forcing fielding errors, eventually getting the loose balls to cash in on. This showed maturity in adapting to conditions rather than playing one-dimensional cricket.
And despite posting 205, Kohli admitted the game still felt on edge — a reminder of how high-pressure T20 games can be.
“[Our score] looks enough right now but at one point it didn’t seem to be enough.”
Rajasthan Royals made a strong push in the chase, especially through Dhruv Jurel’s late burst. But RCB held their nerve in the final overs, with Josh Hazlewood delivering a superb penultimate over to swing the match back in their favour.
With this win, RCB moved to 12 points from 9 matches, strengthening their playoff position and keeping their top two hopes very much alive.
