Kolkata Knight Riders registered a thumping nine-wicket win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Monday. The boys in Purple and Gold produced a clinical display in their first match post the resumption of the league to help KKR gain vital two points and jump to the fifth position in the points table.

Chasing a modest total of 93 runs, Knight Riders, led by a sublime 82-run opening partnership between Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer, registered a resounding victory with ten overs to spare. The 26-year old, making his debut, displayed a fearless brand of cricket and scored an unbeaten 41 runs off 27 balls with seven fours and one huge six to set up a thumping win.

The skipper heaped praises on the southpaw by saying, "I think Venky (Venkatesh), the way he came in and played, was outstanding and certainly the brand of cricket we want to play. We have a lot of talent within our group and certainly playing under Brendon McCullum; that is the aggressive nature in which we want to play. Although he was very aggressive, he managed to play with fantastic control throughout the innings, and his opening partnership

While the road to the playoff will possess plenty of challenges, Morgan wants the Knight Riders to take confidence from their 2014 championship-winning campaign and try and emulate their heroics by playing an aggressive brand of cricket.

"Yeah, there is no doubt that it is going to be a challenge from here on, but our main aim is to turn up and try and play cricket like we have done today (Monday). If we do that, we give ourselves the best chance of progressing. It is certainly something that the franchise has done before and gone on to win the championship, so we take confidence from that, but more so, the confidence we take is from our performance with the ball and the bat and in the field today. I think, moving forward, if we continue to play in that manner, it makes us a dangerous side," he concluded.