Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) handily in Match No. 1 to start the IPL 2025 as anticipated.
RCB won the toss and put the hosts in after a spectacular opening ceremony that included singing by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and the renowned Shreya Ghoshal shaking a leg with Rinku Singh and Virat Kohli. Following a sluggish start, captain Ajinkya Rahane (56 off 31) took the initiative to set KKR on the road to recovery by putting the gas on. After struggling early on, Sunil Narine (44 off 26) finally settled into a rhythm as the two defeated RCB.
After being hammered for 15 runs in his opening over, Krunal Pandya (3 for 29) destroyed the middle order, and Rahane’s departure finally put KKR on hold. Josh Hazlewood (2 for 22) was another player in the Pandya-led bowling recovery as RCB allowed only 67 runs in the final ten overs and just 29 in the final five to limit KKR to what appeared to be a below-par 174.
RCB embarked on a quest to find the total as quickly as possible.
The signal RCB needed came from former KKR player Phil Salt (56 off 31), who hit a four off the first ball he faced in Red and Gold. Salt pounded the bowlers as RCB racked up a massive 80 in the powerplay, and the game was already over thanks to excellent backing from the always reliable Virat Kohli (59* off 36).
With 22 balls left, RCB’s new captain Rajat Patidar (34 off 16) and Liam Livingstone put in the final touches to end the chase after Salt and Devdutt Padikkal left in rapid succession.
Here are the most important numbers from the game
3 – Virat Kohli became the third Indian player to play 400 T20s. Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik are the other two.
3 – Krunal Pandya’s bowling figures are the third best by a spinner while playing his first IPL game for RCB. Samuel Badree took 4/9 and Muttiah Muralitharan 3/25 in their respective first matches for the franchise.
58.33/166.13 – Ajinkya Rahane’s respective average and strike rate in his last nine T20 innings. These innings include a run as the highest run-getter in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2024 where he was a revelation at the top of the order and instrumental in delivering Mumbai the title and walked away with the Player of the Tournament Award. Rahane has managed 525 runs in these nine innings.
3 – Sunil Narine became the third player to hit 100 sixes for KKR in the IPL. Andre Russell leads the chart with a scarcely believable 206 sixes while Nitish Rana, who isn’t a part of KKR anymore, follows with 107.
2 – RCB’s powerplay total of 80/0 in this game is their second highest powerplay total ever in the IPL behind the 92/1 they made against Gujarat Titans last year.
3 – Phil Salt’s 56 is the joint third-highest score by any player in their first IPL match for RCB. Chris Gayle made an unbeaten 102 on RCB debut – incidentally against KKR in 2011, Faf du Plessis made 88 against PBKS in 2022 while Devdutt Padikkal also made 56 against SRH in 2020.
3 – Virat Kohli became the third player to score 1,000 IPL runs against KKR after David Warner and Rohit Sharma. No other franchise has had three players score as many runs against them in the IPL, but CSK (Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli), DC (Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma) and PBKS (David Warner and Virat Kohli) have all had two such players each.
4 – KKR are the fourth IPL franchise, after against whom Virat Kohli has made 1,000 runs in the IPL. No other batter has made 1,000 or more IPL runs against even three different franchises. David Warner has crossed four digits against KKR and PBKS, while Rohit Sharma has gotten there against KKR and DC. Shikhar Dhawan with 1,057 runs against CSK rounds off the list of all players with a thousand or more runs against a single team in the IPL.
1 – Virat Kohli now has the joint-most fifty-plus scores against KKR in IPL with 8. David Warner and Suresh Raina also have as many while Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma aren’t far behind with 7 each.
India
