KKR Vs RCB, 1ST IPL MATCH 2025, EDEN GARDENS, KOLKATA : Kohli and Salt’s Chemistry Stuns KKR in 7-Wicket Victory .
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) crushed reigning champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven wickets in the first match of IPL 2025 at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. KKR reached only a total of 174 which RCB chased down in only 16.2 overs. Krunal Pandya (3/29) and Josh Hazlewood (2/22) shone with the ball before Phil Salt and Virat Kohli let their class shine through with half-centuries which paved the way for the dominant win. It was disappointing for KKR, with only skipper Ajinkya Rahane managing a half-century. Kohli and Salt’s Chemistry Stuns KKR in 7-Wicket Victory .
TOSS-
Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the toss and has elected to bowl .
TEAMS LINE UP-
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad:
Quinton de Kock (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh , Spencer Johnson, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Squad :
Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Rasikh Dar Salam, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal
Kolkata Knight Riders-
What an incredible exhibition it was to see how the Power Play unfolded for KKR. Josh Hazlewood got plenty of movement and bounce from this track to trouble Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock . After three overs, KKR were 9 for 1 with in particular Narine struggling to get going, batting on 5 off 11. However, Ajinkya Rahane walked in and switched on the attack mode, hitting Rasikh Salam for a couple of sixes and a four in the 4th over of the innings. Narine’s release shot came after Krunal Pandya in the next over, after which Rahane went into a boundary-munching frenzy where KKR added 41 runs in the second half of the Power Play.
If Rahane was the show in the PowerPlay, Narine turned the tide for good in the middle overs after the initial hiccup. RCB were desperate to bring back Krunal as Narine took strike in the middle but the opener pounced on needing to take down Suyash Sharma over extra-cover for a massive six and then slammed him down the ground. Rahane then hit the legspinner for a six over mid-wicket as the first 50 of IPL 2025 came up. Salam didn’t escape such punishment either as he was smoked to 44 of 25 by Narine before the pacer finally made the breakthrough. KKR were at 107 for 2 halfway through their innings and on target to pose a target of 220. But this was the phase that RCB started to make their comeback, with Krunal coming back into the attack and making a big impact. First he removed Rahane, then he bowled out Venkatesh Iyer in his next over. He even sent down a quicker ball in his last over to break Rinku Singh’s defence which left the responsibility on Andre Russell and young Angkrish Raghuvanshi to complete the task.
Suyash, who had been carted around till then, returned for his last over as the RCB continued to bowl spin after Krunal’s success. The trick paid off as Russell’s stumps were rattled by a well-disguised googly bowled by Suyash. RCB wrapped the innings with brilliant ES close as that was a telling blow for home side. Hazlewood was the spearhead of that fightback, shipping only 15 runs in his last two overs. Hazlewood kept Ramandeep Singh off strike for the entirety of the final over to inflict frustration on KKR who were only able to score 29 in the slog overs.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru-
Even the Eden crowd are now accustomed to Salt losing the plot. True that he formed an exhilarating opening pair with Narine in KKR’s title winning campaign. This time from the other camp, he did the same. Starting the chase with a boundary in the form of a cover drive, he hit Vaibhav Arora out of the attack with an eventful over where he got two fours and a six off him. Just to rub it in further, he released a majestic stroke play to welcome Varun Chakaravarthy that included 4,6,4,4 in that order. However, Kohli was not lagging behind too much, hitting identical sixes off Spencer Johnson. An eventual 80 runs in the Power Play left RCB waltzing off into the sunset.
Salt completed his 50 only after the first six overs, and KKR’s spinners were able to gradually rein in the run rate now. Problem was, that still wasn’t enough as they needed wickets. Chakaravarthy made Salt mistime one as he was caught, much to KKR’s relief and a fielder at deep mid-wicket was hit by Devdutt Padikkal. Kohli remained dominant as he hit Chakaravarthy for another six over long-on and then reached his fifty in mere 30 balls. RCB’s run rate remained just above six for a big portion of this phase, but skipper Rajat Patidar infused a massive fillip into that with an attractive cameo. Having tonked Narine over long-on, Patidar then clobbered Harshit Rana for four boundaries in an over that set the target at a mere 18 runs in 30 balls.
Patidar, having buried another boundary in his pursuit to get it done quickly, then picked out a fielder at the deep to walk back for a 16-ball 34. By then, KKR had literally no chance to make a comeback but he had done enough damage. By this time, however, Kohli had taken a backseat as Liam Livingstone strode out with a plan to do match-finish in a canter
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 177/3in16.2 overs (Virat Kohli 59\*, Phil Salt 56; Sunil Narine 1/27) won against Kolkata Knight Riders174/8 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 56, Sunil Narine 44; Krunal Pandya 3/29) by 7 wickets.