Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 59 from 36 balls and a spanking 56 from 31 balls by England’s Phil Salt led the Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a resounding seven-wicket victory against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening match of the Indian Premier League at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday night.
Salt smashed nine fours and a brace of sixes in his confrontational start to dominate an opening stand of 95 with Kohli as RCB finished on 177-3 in just 16.2 overs to overhaul KKR’s 174-8 with ease.
The opening match of #TATAIPL goes to Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) March 22, 2025
They defeat the Kolkata Knight Riders by 7️⃣ wickets with 22 balls remaining.pic.twitter.com/VjiN0MECqC
Kohli was at his supreme best during the run-chase with four sublime fours but also three calculated sixes as he measured and paced the innings to perfection, allowing captain Rajat Patidar and another Englishman, Liam Livingstone, to explode over the finish line.
Patidar hammered 34 from only 16 balls (5x4, 1x6) while Livingstone’s 15* came from just five balls in a pressure-free ‘swing for the hills’ which earned two fours and a six.
Earlier the defending champions squandered a magnificent start after they reached 107-2 at the halfway stage of the innings with a second-wicket partnership of 103 between opener Sunil Narine and captain Ajinkya Rahane.
Narine struck five fours and three sixes in his 44 from just 26 balls while Rahane played the ‘pick-up’ flick to great effect for four sixes and six fours in his 56 from 31 balls, but RCB fought back superbly through left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya (3-29) who had Rahane caught at deep square leg before bowling Venkatesh Iyer (6) and Rinku Singh (12).
For his impressive and game changing spell of 3⃣/2⃣9⃣, Krunal Pandya bagged the Player of the Match award that helped #RCB register a 7⃣-wicket victory 👌👌
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 22, 2025
Scorecard ▶ https://t.co/C9xIFpQDTn#TATAIPL | #KKRvRCB | @RCBTweets | @krunalpandya24 pic.twitter.com/NqbiTqasNT
Angrish Raghuvanshi contributed 30 from 22 balls but the innings collapsed from a potential score of 220 to an under-par 174-8 in which Australian paceman Josh Hazlewood also played a huge role with 2-22 from his four overs.
Englishman Liam Livingstone also played a significant part, conceding just 14 runs from two overs.
Rahane conceded afterwards that “200 was the target we thought was right for these conditions but we lost too many wickets at the wrong times after that start.”
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ajinkya Rahane (capt) Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell,Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Spencer Johnson
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU: Phil Salt (wk), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (capt), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma , Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal