KL Rahul, who has been in roaring form in the shortest format, scripted history in the match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore as he became the fastest Indian batsman to score 3000 runs in T20s. He took 93 innings to complete 3000 runs in this format. T20 cricket to become the fastest Indian to that milestone.

Chasing a target of 203, Rahul looked in blazing form as he stroked his way to 42 runs off 27 balls, an innings which consisted of eight boundaries. He, along with Mayank Agarwal were rattling along, when RCB dismissed them both to effectively end KXIP’s hopes. However, it has been a staggering season for Rahul and so far, he has scored 441 runs at an average of 55.12.

“It’s all about getting one win together and we can get on a roll like RCB won three in a row now, so it’s all about getting one win and then we go back home and then we probably try to win a couple on the trot. It’s very important to keep trust in the players. We held onto giving players enough opportunities to try and come out on trumps. It’s important to back the players.

In all the eleven games we played to be brutally honest, we haven’t been outplayed by any opposition which is a great positive for us. The one area we could really work on is the powerplay and the back-end finishing,” KXIP skipper R Ashwin said after the loss.