Former Indian opener Abhinav Mukund showered praise on Virat Kohli after Royal Challengers Bengaluru registered a historic six-wicket win against Lucknow Super Giants at Lucknow in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Tuesday as they successfully chased down 228, which is their highest chase in IPL history.

Mukund reckons Kohli was fired up after RCB’s poor show in the first innings against LSG as they conceded a huge total of 227 runs on the board. Barring Nuwan Thushara and Krunal Pandya, all the RCB bowlers conceded their runs at an economy rate of more than 11.50.

Furthermore, RCB were not up to the mark in the field as there were numerous misfields, with Kohli also fumbling on one occasion.

In the second innings while chasing 228, Kohli kept RCB in the run-chase as he scored a crucial knock of 54 runs off just 30 balls. The RCB veteran smashed a total of 10 fours and made the most of the Powerplay overs to lay down the foundation of the run-chase.

Abhinav Mukund said on ESPN Cricinfo, “I mean with this all due respect to Kohli, but I just feel that he was riled up after that first innings, and it is very bad news for somebody, today it just ended up being LSG. He came in with all of those juices flowing, with the anger of the first innings, those misfields, and the lacklustre bowling performance. It just gave him another gear, I feel.”

“He was batting beautifully. I think this is one of his best fifties of the season, by what I saw, because whatever he attempted, he would have got atleast 80-85 percent (of control) or higher. That is incredible to have.” he added.

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli has scored 602 runs in 13 matches at an average of 60.20 and a strike rate of 147.91 in the ongoing IPL 2025.

RCB will take on Punjab Kings in the first qualifier at New Chandigarh on Thursday.