KKR is crushed by Krunal, Kohli, and Salt on the first night of the 2025 IPL
Following Rahane and Narine's 103-run partnership for the second wicket, KKR lost their way.
Kolkata Knight Riders 174 for 8 (Rahane 56, Narine 44, Raghuvanshi 30, Krunal 3-29, Hazlewood 2-22) were defeated by seven wickets by Royal Challengers Bengaluru 177 for 3 (Kohli 59*, Salt 56, Patidar 34, Narine 1-27).New alliances and allegiances shine
There is a lot of expectation for new alliances and allegiances following the most recent mega auction and the first IPL. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will be ecstatic that their most recent acquisitions helped them defeat the reigning champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their decisive IPL 2025 opening match.Hazlewood's impact
With a 4-0-22-1 analysis, Josh Hazlewood destroyed KKR's powerplay and death-overs plans using the spongy bounce at Eden Gardens; Suyash Sharma saved a mediocre evening with the huge wicket of Andre Russell; Phil Salt ended the chase with 56 off 31, the same score as Rahane's; and Krunal Pandya ended Ajinkya Rahane's high-intent fifty in a spell of 4-0-29-3. Virat Kohli then completed the game with 59 off 36 with 22 balls remaining in the chase of 175 in a regular match at RCB.KKR's cautious approach backfires
KKR, who are known for defying expectations, chose to be cautious when selecting their captain after the auction. The batter Rahane will have to dispel doubts almost daily, but he started well after smashing 98 runs in four to ten overs with Sunil Narine. Outside of those seven overs, though, KKR was outplayed almost the entire evening.Hazlewood's height causes KKR problems
Even though there were only two overs at the top, in T20 cricket, that makes up 10% of the innings. At the auction, RCB re-acquired Hazlewood, who was unavailable during the previous IPL. He started as if he had never been away after a protracted injury layoff: hard length, good pace, and extra bounce. In the first over, he got Quinton de Kock dropped, and two balls later, he got him. Then, through the third over, he had Narine swinging and missing.Narine follows Rahane as she takes off
Although RCB did assist Rahane, he cleared up some of the skepticism regarding his batting with a high-intent innings, even as Narine initially found it difficult to accept the uneven bounce of the pitch. Rahane's first thirty runs all came from the leg side as RCB continued to feed him straight balls, which he continued to pick up. It was forgotten that it had started slowly once Narine joined the chaos.Krunal spearheads RCB's recovery
Narine attempted to hit Rasikh Salam over the off side when KKR was 107 for 1 in 9.5 overs, but the extra bounce got him. Lacking options until then, RCB might turn back to Krunal because spin can shut down Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer. Krunal, who employed deft pace changes, took a wicket with faster balls in each of his three previous overs. While Rinku Singh and Venkatesh were castled, Rahane holed out to deep midwicket.Russell's struggle continues
Russell was brought in after Rinku was removed, allowing RCB to start bowling legspin. Russell lost his middle stump after failing to pick one from Suyash, continuing his dreary record against the wrong'un. He hits the wrong person at 123.24 and averages 13.41 since 2018. About 40 runs were worth that wicket.Salt penalizes the former squad
Salt quickly reminded KKR they shouldn't have let him go after he contributed significantly to the team's title run the previous season with an average of 58.33 and a strike rate of 185.18 in games played in Kolkata. The chase's opening ball was hit wide of mid-off for four. With Kohli turbocharged during the powerplay as well, the intent never ceased. In the fourth over, Salt took 20 off Varun Chakravarthy, forcing KKR to bring him in. By that time, the ball had also lost its grip, perhaps due to the dew.Kohli’s masterclass seals the deal
RCB had reached 95 in 8.3 overs by the time Varun defeated Salt. Kohli was not going to allow such a chase to go unnoticed, and the asking rate had fallen below seven. What will excite RCB, though, is that Kohli maintained his focus and worked to increase their net run-rate significantly. It would have been simple to simply play Varun out, but he slog-swept him for a six in his final over. As RCB easily won, new captain Rajat Patidar played the ideal little hand at the other end, scoring 34 off 16.
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ipl2025