IPL 2025: Kohli and Salt seal easy win after Krunal heroics
RCB openers hit fifties after Krunal Pandya breaks the KKR middle-order with disciplined lines on opening night
Kolkata: Nine out of 10 times Varun Chakravarthy would give you a decent, if not a highly economical, Powerplay over, especially at Eden Gardens. The 10th time is probably what Phil Salt did to him on Saturday. Chakravarthy had been pushed to long-on by Virat Kohli for a single before Salt beautifully flicked him between backward square leg and short fine leg for two runs as the Royal Challengers Bengaluru openers warmed up. Next shot was borderline freakish though, Salt using his wrists to cream Chakravarthy over long-off for four. A straight six, a four mowed through mid-on before Salt went squarer with another boundary, and Kolkata Knight Riders’ 174 suddenly started looking too meagre.
Chakravarthy leaked 21 runs that over. Once Kohli crunched two straight sixes off Spencer Johnson in the next over, it was fair to wonder whether the chase would be wrapped up with a few overs to spare. The trajectory at least suggested so. Fifty in 22 balls, 100 in 59 balls—these are the kind of milestones that can’t go to waste in a relatively easy chase. KKR were in a similar position, but they didn’t have Kohli. Which is what the RCB bench must have been telling themselves throughout the chase.
RCB wrapped it up by seven wickets, reaching 177 in reply to KKR’s 174/8. Victory was wrapped up with 22 balls to spare with Kohli remaining unbeaten on 59, leaving defending champions KKR much to ponder.
Kohli was in the zone, nudging those singles, working the gaps and absolutely stunning KKR with shots ranging from slog sweeps to just flicking the ball for dead straight sixes. Fifty up in 30 balls, Kohli kept going in a mode that could have probably wrested 200 with a few balls to spare. First Salt and then skipper Rajat Patidar (34 off 16 balls), Kohli didn’t have to look for able allies at the other end. Devdutt Padikkal was the only wicket KKR got cheaply in an otherwise solid display.
Still early days but the way KKR’s middle-order surrendered to Krunal Pandya’s (3/29) left-arm spin could be a pertinent point to start with. Hundred runs in 57 balls but only 74 in the next 63 meant KKR had frittered away a perfect start. RCB’s comeback was noteworthy as well. Because for the score to go from 9/1 in three overs to 107/2 in 10, a lot of things need to go awfully wrong for the bowling side even if you factor in the belligerent fifty from skipper Ajinkya Rahane. Quinton de Kock got an early life when Suyash Sharma spilled an easy catch but Josh Hazlewood got the ball to swing in, too good for the South African who got an inside edge. Three swing-and-misses from Sunil Narine were followed by a snorter from Hazlewood that surprised him for pace and bounce and RCB looked firmly in charge of the game.
This is where RCB erred by trying spin and pace in tandem. Straying down the leg off the second ball of his first over, Rasikh Salam watched as skipper Rahane helped himself to an easy boundary at fine-leg. Next ball was short and slow and Rahane pulled him over deep square for six. The next ball dot meant nothing as Salam followed it with a wide delivery, allowing Rahane to get himself another six and resuscitate the run rate. That set the tone as RCB kept leaking runs.
Krunal Pandya conceded 15 and Yash Dayal 20 before Suyash—who played for KKR last season—was introduced. Giving away just five runs in the first over should have been a prelude to a steady, disciplined spell but Suyash either bowled too full or too short in his next over. Two sixes and a four in a 22-run over was just what KKR needed to keep boosting their run rate before Salam finally got the breakthrough when Narine was caught behind. KKR had by this time raised 100 runs in 9.3 overs. The next 50 runs however came off 36 balls, quick but not as rapid as KKR would have probably hoped for.
Pandya’s pace and stump-to-stump line were the key to dislodging the KKR middle-order. Averaging well above 90 kph, Pandya first accounted for Rahane, who tried to pull him over backward square leg but couldn’t get enough bat under the delivery. Next over, he got Venkatesh Iyer, who tried to flick through midwicket but ended up inside edging onto his stumps. Rinku Singh’s wicket—getting beaten by a quicker one that skidded through his defence—added to the drama but the demolition was well and truly complete when Suyash bowled Andre Russell with a googly.
