Captain Shreyas Iyer focused on Kolkata Knight Riders’ strong mentality, as they stretched Royal Challengers Bangalore almost to the full, though defending just 128, in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday.

“I really found this game exciting. Before getting in, I spoke with my boys and told them that this game is going to define our character no matter whether we’re to defend (the total) or not.

“The way we fought it on the ground, that’s really going to reflect our mentality in the next few games. I’m really proud of the way we played this game and took it till the final over,” the KKR skipper said at the post-match presentation.

Shreyas, however, acknowledged that the RCB batters played really well in the critical phase of the game.

His counterpart Faf du Plessis, relieved after RCB’s first win this season, was all praise for wicketkeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik. “DK is as close as it gets to MS Dhoni when it comes to being ice cool,” Du Plessis said.

PITCH REPORT

1) Best strike rate (25 or more runs): 138.88 Andre Russell (KKR)
2) Most fours: 3 David Willey (RCB)
3) Most sixes: 3 Shahbaz Ahmed (RCB); Andre Russell (KKR)
4) Best partnership: 45 David Willey/ Sherfane Rutherford (RCB)
5) Most dot balls: 19 Harshal Patel (RCB)
6) Most fours conceded: 5 Akash Deep (RCB)
7) Most sixes conceded: 3 Akash Deep (RCB); Andre Russell (KKR)
8) MoM: 4/20 in 4 overs Wanindu Hasaranga (RCB)