IPL 2021: What made Royal Challengers Bangalore's Devdutt Padikkal go all out against Rajasthan Royals?

Devdutt Padikkal is an Indian opening batsman who has been playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore since 2019. He represents Karnataka in the domestic circuit. He became the first centurion of the Indian Premier League 2021, on Thursday, against Rajasthan Royals.

The Indian cricketing fraternity is abuzz following uncapped Indian opening batsman Devdutt Padikkal's blistering knock on Thursday. He fired a 52-ball 101 against former Indian Premier League champion Rajasthan Royals, as Royal Challengers Bangalore tamed the side by ten wickets.

Padikkal was also involved in a 181-run opening stand with RCB skipper Virat Kohli. As critics continue to talk about him, he has asserted that adequate support from the other end by Kohli made it easier for him to play his natural game, as he took up the challenge of hitting the bowlers in the middle overs.

"It's about the situation of the game, I always have a particular role that I have to play, and I have to do that as well as possible. Sometimes it can get challenging in the middle overs and it's not easy to hit boundaries all the time," he said during the post-match press conference, reports PTI.

"It was a good wicket, we had the partnership going and we were complimenting each other well. So, in that situation, it was easier to hit those boundaries because we are always rotating the strike. To be honest, I was just looking to finish the game off; that's what mattered the most," Padikkal added.

Interestingly, Padikkal had tested positive for COVID and had missed the season's opening game against defending champion Mumbai Indians, which RCB won. He stated that missing out on the opener hurt him, which fired him up, as he was determined to prove himself from the second game.

"Coming out of COVID definitely was a big challenge and I was really glad that I was able to contribute to the team's win from the second game. As long as I am contributing and the team is winning, that what that matters to me," he concluded.

Match summary
Winning the toss, RCB skipper Kohli elected to bowl first. Although RR was off to a nervous start, it made a speedy recovery, thanks to Shivam Dube and Rahul Tewatia. However, the RCB openers, in the form of Kohli and Padikkal, were just too good to handle for the RR bowlers.
Brief scores: RR 177/9 (Dube- 46, Tewatia- 40; Siraj- 3/27, Harshal- 3/47) lost to RCB 181/0 (Kohli- 72*, Padikkal- 101*; Parag- 0/14) by ten wickets.