IPL 2025: RR vs KKR, Match 6 – Who Said What?

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) achieved their first victory on the IPL 2025 Points Table with to Quinton de Kock’s undefeated knock. After losing to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in their first game of the season, KKR bounced back to win their first game by an eight-wicket margin in their second game. Rajasthan, on the other hand, still aims to finish poorly in the ten-team tournament because they appeared largely incompetent in both games.

Rajasthan didn’t glance at anything during the game, and none of their hitters showed any desire to hold onto the crease and help the team to a higher total. Much praise is also due to KKR’s bowlers, who effectively employed their lengths and precise lines to limit RR to 151-9 at the end of 20 overs in the first innings. In the first innings of the game, which was contested at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati, Dhruv Jurel earned the most points with 33.

Talking Points

1. Oh, Riyan!

The stand-in skipper, Riyan Parag, clearly showed what lack of experience can do in a high-pressure situation like an IPL game. Although the player has captained Assam in the domestic circuit, there was a shortage of confidence in his approach as a leader, which eventually costed RR their second-straight game of the season. Riyan will be captaining the Royals in the upcoming game against Chennai Super Kings as well, and would definitely want to prove his leadership mettle.

2. KKR army strikes at RR batting

The Ajinkya Rahane-led army were more than happy to field first after winning the toss. The toss worked in their favour and so did the conditions. None of Knight Riders’ bowlers went wicketless. Andre Russell, one of the top all-rounders did not even bowl, and Sunil Narine’s absence from the game did not seem to be missed at all by Rahane. As a result, a below par total was put up by RR, which the defending champions chased down comfortably.

The highlight of the day was Kolkata opener, Quinton de Kock. The Proteas cricketer entered the match after a poor outing in the game against RCB. The ace batter had his intentions clear though. After a watchful start, de Kock took the onus of scoring bulk of the target upon himself. He faced 61 deliveries in his unbeaten knock of 97 runs, and was laced with eight fours and six maximums, including the winning shot over long-on as well.

Who Said What

Ajinkya Rahane, KKR captain said

The first six overs we bowled really well, and they were one-two wickets down. The middle overs were really crucial, with two spinners and Sunil wasn’t well. Moeen got his opportunity and bowled really well. You want your players to be fearless in this format, we have explosive batsmen. Credit to our bowling unit, they’re always looking for wickets. Our chat with Moeen was to pick wickets and he did that. We gave Moeen complete freedom (while batting), unfortunately it didn’t happen but he had a great day with the ball.

Quinton de Kock, Player of the Match said

Nice to get an opportunity and to make it count. To be fair, I’ve not felt any challenges yet (having retired from international cricket). Coming back into cricket we had 10 days of camp, practice matches so that made it pretty easy. This is only my second game here, luckily we batted second so as a keeper I got to watch the wicket and I could adjust accordingly while batting.

I know the IPL is known for big scores, but I just tried to win the game for us. (Any challenges in a new team?) Nothing, I love meeting new people and new environments, there were no real challenges. This team accepted me as I walked in, they’re a great bunch of players. It was not the type of wicket for big scores, the ball was turning and stopping. It wasn’t a flat wicket, it was a working man’s wicket.

Riyan Parag, Rajasthan Royals captain said