Kolkata, March 22 Half-centuries by 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 Indian Premier League (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 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 he 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 a deep mid-wicket 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 Rana 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.
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
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