'For me those small things matter a lot' - Krunal Pandya on RCB's first win at home against RR

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have broken their jinx at home this season with a win against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium by 11 runs on Thursday, April 24. This was a battle of nerves in a high-scoring thriller which went down to the wire.

The RCB players expressed their joy after winning the match, including star all-rounder Krunal Pandya. The major contributions in the game were made by Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal with their knocks and Josh Hazlewood with his match-winning spell including the incredible 19th over. Krunal chose to acknowledge the smaller contributions during the game which includes Philip Salt's reserved 26 which helped in forming an important partnership in the powerplay.

“Sometimes what happens is that you always highlight the performance which is quite evident and visible but what I felt is that in powerplay to get six overs, 56 runs, though we always are used to watching Salty scoring at a strike rate of 180-200 but again to stitch that partnership in that phase, those 24 runs for me watching was so crucial to lay that platform and then obviously what Virat and Dev (Padikkal) did was we spoke about but again for me those small things matters a lot, Jacob again coming out and fielding and diving, saving two runs, you know," Krunal said during a dressing room video posted by RCB.

Salt was very happy with the way he played today: Dinesh Karthik

Krunal was not the only one who praised Philip Salt for his cameo but RCB mentor and batting coach Dinesh karthik also had a lot of great things to say about the English opener saying that he is pleased the way he adapted to the conditions and also revealed that the batter felt satisfied after the knock as well.

“Salt was very happy with the way he played today. He knows his role, he knows that certain shots cannot be played in this venue at the start, so he adapted himself beautifully, and that's what I think gave him a lot of satisfaction today,” Karthik said.

“It is one thing knowing to play a lot of shots, one thing adapting as to what is required on that pitch on that given day. He felt there were certain things he needed to do, he followed it through beautifully, and the shot that he played we all want him to play that shot, so he knows the commitment towards that from him and the beliefs that we have in him is something that he appreciates as well,” the 2013 IPL winner concluded.