Venkatesh Iyer produced a knock of substance on a wicket where most of the batters struggled to gain a proper foothold on Friday.

The left-hander’s 70 off 52 balls helped KKR set a 170-run target after they were struggling at 57/5 in the seventh over. His 83-run stand with Manish Pandey also helped KKR come back from the depths.

“It was very important at that time (to rebuild the innings). Initially, I told him (Pandey) it would take time to adjust to the wicket. The ball was holding up, and it was a bit two-paced. He was guiding me,” Venkatesh said after the match.

“Like a professional cricketer, I have to be flexible in how I can pace my innings. When I started hitting the ball well, two more wickets fell and I thought I had to play the anchor role,” he said.

“This is the fourth or fifth time that Manish has padded up, but this time he got to bat... Rather than sending Russell and Ramandeep higher, it was better to have Manish who could play the anchor role.”

Venkatesh had spoken to Sourav Ganguly at the end of their last match against Delhi Capitals at the Eden and the former captain’s tips helped.

“I’m a huge fan of Dada... I went to ask him about my stance and other technical aspects. It was a very fruitful conversation. It’s coming through in my stance and other aspects in the nets,” he said without revealing the details.

Captain Shreyas Iyer was ecstatic and didn’t forget to mention Mitchell Starc’s role in the victory.

“I was having a conversation with Starcy and told him how important this game was for us. If we lost this, we would’ve had to win two out of four. Would take this win any day. A beautiful victory for us,” the KKR captain said. “We got to a commendable total. All I had to say to the boys was we can defend it... We were absolutely spot on.”