Kolkata, March 22 (IANS) Fifties from Virat Kohli (59 not out) and Phil Salt (56) went hard in power-play to set the base for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to chase down 175 and beat defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven wickets in the first game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) IPL 2025 at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday.
After Krunal Pandya’s 3-29 and Josh Hazlewood’s 2-22 helped RCB stage a spirited comeback and restrict KKR to 174/8, Salt and Kohli were blazing from the word go to stitch a 95-run opening partnership. Though Salt fell just before the halfway mark of the chase, Kohli remained unbeaten on 59 off 36 balls, as RCB wrapped the emphatic win with 22 balls to spare.
Salt began the chase with a sizzling cover drive off Vaibhav Arora before Kohli flicked him through mid-wicket in the opening over. Salt then drilled a cover drive off Spencer Johnson, before lofting Arora over mid-on on back-to-back balls for a four and six respectively.
After Kohli swiped Arora through the line for four, Salt ended the third over by upper-cutting the pacer for six. Salt’s onslaught continued as used his wrists to hit Varun Chakaravarthy for two fours and a six down the ground, before pulling him over the deep square-leg fence for four more, as 21 runs came off the fourth over.
Kohli produced a wow moment of the innings by straight-lofting Johnson for back-to-back sixes down the ground, before Salt guided him through backward point for four. After Kohli’s catch off Harshit Rana was spilled by deep cover, he slog-swept Chakaravarthy for six, before Salt got his fifty in 25 balls.
But Chakaravarthy finally got Salt as the batter reached out for the leg-break, but the outside edge was caught by short third man. Shortly after, Devdutt Padikkal picked out the deep mid-wicket fielder off Narine. But Kohli marched forward to get his 56th IPL fifty in 30 balls via a sublime drive off Harshit Rana in the 13th over.
Captain Rajat Patidar looked in great touch by lofting Narine for six, before lofting, flicking, square-driving, and late-cutting Harshit for four boundaries. Though Patidar holed out to deep mid-wicket off Arora, Liam Livingstone pulled for a four and six each, before smacking past mid-on to get the winning boundary and a statement victory for RCB.
Previously, KKR had the upper hand initially as captain Ajinkya Rahane injected momentum with a sweet 31-ball 56 and shared a 103-run stand for the second wicket with Narine, who hit 44 off 26 balls. But with the old ball gripping, Krunal shined as he and Suyash Sharma ran through KKR’s famed middle-order, while Hazlewood ended with 2-22.
Pushed into batting first, Quinton de Kock got a boundary off the second ball he faced from Hazlewood. After getting a reprieve as Suyash dropped a skier at mid-wicket, Hazlewood had the last laugh by getting one to nip back in and having de Kock caught behind for just four.
After making only nine runs in the first three overs, Rahane got going for KKR by smashing Rasikh Salam for two sixes and a four in the 16-run fourth over. Narine welcomed Pandya by smacking him over long-on for six before Rahane flicked and swept him for two fours in a 15-run fifth over.
Rahane then whipped, edged, and drove Yash Dayal for two fours and a six as KKR hammered 51 runs in the second phase of power-play and was at 60/1 at the end of six overs. Rahane brought up his fifty in 25 balls by going down on one knee and slog-sweeping Suyash for six before Narine lofted and drilled him down the ground for six and four respectively.
RCB, though, managed to stage a great fightback as Rasikh found Narine’s thick outside edge and removed him for 44, while Rahane pulled to deep backward square leg off Krunal and fell for 56. Krunal struck again when he castled Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh for six and 12 respectively, while Suyash knocked over Russell’s stumps with a googly and removed him for four.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi tried applying finishing touches with a 22-ball 30, but edged behind off Dayal, while Hazlewood had Rana skying one to keeper Jitesh Sharma, giving him his fourth catch of the match, as RCB managed to stage a grand comeback with the ball by mixing their pace and lengths well to concede only 29 runs in the last five overs.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 174/8 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 56, Sunil Narine 44; Krunal Pandya 3-29, Josh Hazlewood 2-22) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 177/3 in 16.2 overs (Virat Kohli 59 not out, Phil Salt 56; Sunil Narine 1-27, Vaibhav Arora 1-42) by seven wickets
–IANS
nr/bsk/
