IPL 2025: Rahul wanted to bat at the top, so good to watch when in full flow, says Pietersen

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) Delhi Capitals (DC) mentor Kevin Pietersen said KL Rahul, who hit a majestic 112 not out off 65 balls in the IPL 2025 clash against Gujarat Titans, wanted to bat at the top of the order and added that watching the wicketkeeper-batter is an absolute treat when in full flow.

At the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Rahul reached the three-figure mark off 60 balls with a powerful pull off Prasidh Krishna in the 19th over. With his fifth IPL century and first for DC, laced with 14 fours and four sixes, Rahul became the first batter in IPL history to score hundreds for three different teams – previously doing the same for Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants

“It's tough sitting and watching the boys, especially in the pressure situation we got into ourselves, we started well, got into a wobble, but the break must've done good for us. KL wanted to bat at the top of the order and he's so good to watch when in full flow. When you can see players of that quality, watch them practice and then watch them put on a show during the match is do good to see,” said Pietersen in a mid-innings chat with broadcasters.

Rahul, DC’s leading run-getter in IPL 2025 with 495 runs, now has the fourth most number of hundreds in the tournament, after Virat Kohli, Jos Buttler and Chris Gayle. During his majestic knock on Sunday, Rahul also became the fastest Indian and third overall to amass 8,000 runs in T20 cricket. With Rahul propelling DC to 199/3, Pietersen feels they need to defend the total against an in-form GT batting line-up.

“It's just half the job done though, the top-3 have done a superb job (for Gujarat Titans), but we've Mustafizur who joined us this morning, and Nattu (T Natarajan) as well back from injury. We spoke about getting a solid start, we were poor in that over the last few overs and we then solidified during the middle overs before exploding towards the end, 200 I think is a good target,” he added.

--IANS

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