Venkatesh Iyer scored 60 runs off 29 balls and played a big part in KKR posting 200 runs against SRH. Venky added a 91-run stand with Rinku Singh (38 runs off 27 balls) and boosted KKR's innings in the final overs.
Kolkata Knight Riders scored 78 runs in their final five overs, and the duo took the team from a position of weakness to strength.
This was Venkatesh's third consecutive fifty-plus score against SRH in the IPL In the Qualifier 1 of the IPL 2024, he smashed an unbeaten 51 runs off 28 balls, while in the final, Venkatesh played a vital knock of unbeaten 52 runs off 26 deliveries. Courtesy of his knock, KKR won the match by eight wickets. Meanwhile, he kept with the momentum, smashing his third half-century against SRH in IPL 2025 on April 3.
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Venkatesh Iyer attended the post-match press conference after KKR's win over SRH. In the post-match press conference, he opened up about the price tag pressure. There was some criticism of Iyer after his failures with the bat in the first three games for KKR.
KKR roped in Venkatesh Iyer for 23.75 crores. This meant that they did not have the purse to go behind the likes of Mitchell Starc, Phil Salt or Nitish Rana in the mega auction. Iyer said that once the tournament starts, there is no price tag pressure, and it is the performance that only matters.
“You tell me if the pressure has been released (smiles). I have been saying this constantly that when the IPL starts, the price tag does not matter. We have a young player like Angkrish Raghuvanshi in the team who is playing so well. Money does not define how you play for your team. I know this question comes around a lot. Obviously high payment and expectations. But I am a player of this team and want to contribute to its win. There will be situations where my work will be to play just a few overs. Even if I play those overs and not score much, I would have still worked it out for my team. That does not mean that I am the highest paid player and I need to score runs in every match. It’s about the impact" said Iyer on the question regarding his price tag pressure.
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Also Read: IPL 2025 Match 15 KKR vs SRH Highlights: Bowlers Pulverize Hyderabad as Kolkata Win By 80 Runs
The KKR batters had come under the scanner after being bowled out for 116 in their match against Mumbai Indians. Iyer defended the batters, saying the real meaning of aggression is batting with intent.
"See, I think the basic meaning of aggression is showing a positive intent. And we play cricket so it’s important for us to show positive but correct intent. If we are 50/6 and I still go and tonk everything, that’s positive but that’s not correct. So, if we are to call ourselves champions, if we are to call ourselves smart cricketers, it’s very important for us to read any situation and then react aggressively. See, aggression does not mean tonking every ball for a sixer. It’s about how you understand the conditions and how you are able to maximize the conditions in your favour. And that is what aggression actually is and that is what we as a team want to play,” Iyer said.
He further said that aggression does not mean that the batters get out way too early in trying to set a big score. KKR batters tried to do exactly that in their match against MI and fell way short of where they would have liked to finish. Iyer said that as a batting group they wanted to understand the conditions better before going for big hits.
“We don’t want to be the team that when we hit it, we score 250 and when we don’t we get out for 70. We don’t want to be that team. We want to be the team who understands the pitch and the conditions quickly and assess what is the par score on that pitch and always try to make 20 runs above par. That is what aggression for KKR means" Iyer concluded saying.
Also Read: IPL 2025 Match 15 KKR vs SRH Highlights: Venkatesh Iyer's Blitz Takes Kolkata to 200/6 vs Hyderabad
