MUMBAI (tip) : Virat Kohli, Phil Salt and Rajat Patidar fired on all cylinders as RCB thrashed KKR by seven wickets to kick off IPL 2025 in style.
RCB would have been happy at the innings break after restricting KKR to 174/8 and they were about to rub more salt in KKR’s wounds as the opening pair of Phil Salt and Virat Kohli showed the bowlers no mercy.
After a relatively sedate first two overs that went for 17, the onslaught began when pacer Vaibhav Arora, who was the impact sub for Angkrish Raghuvanshi, was hammered for 20.
That prompted skipper Rahane to bring on his strike bowler Varun Chakravarthy, fresh off his exploits in the Champions Trophy. But he was treated with disdain by Salt who blasted 4, 6, 4 and 4 off the last four balls of the over, which went for 21.
Kohli joined the party hitting Spencer Johnson for successive sixes as RCB breezed to 75/0 in five overs.
Salt reached his fifty on his RCB debut off just 25 balls. He fell soon after for 56 off 31 balls but the damage was done. It was Chakravarthy who made the breakthrough as Salt got an outside edge to be snapped up by Spencer Johnson at short third man.
Chakravarthy closed out his spell with figures of 1/43, a recovery of sorts after that horror first over. RCB lost impact sub Padikkal cheaply to Narine for just 10, which brought Patidar to the crease. The RCB skipper slammed four boundaries off Harshit Rana in the 15th over as RCB cruised to 157/2.
Patidar fell to Arora in the 16th over for 34 off 16 balls by which time it was all over bar the shouting. The next over by Johnson saw Liam Livingstone hitting a six and four off the first two balls as RCB closed out an emphatic win with 22 balls to spare.
Kohli remained unbeaten on 59 to hold the coveted Orange Cap at the end of the first game.
Earlier, KKR struggled to force the pace in the death overs. The last recognised batsman Angkrish Raghuvanshi fell to Yash Dayal in the penultimate over, which went for just four runs.
Raghuvanshi made a useful 30 off 22 balls — he was the only batsman to reach 30 apart from Rahane and Narine. The final over by Hazlewood saw only five more runs accrue to KKR, which finished at a disappointing 174/8 in 20 overs.
It was very much an innings of two halves — KKR clobbered 107/1 off the first 10 overs but could only manage 67/7 in the next 10.
KKR vice captain Venkatesh Iyer, who was bought back by the franchise for a mammoth Rs 23.75 crore at the mega auction, fell cheaply for six to the first ball of the 13th over, dragging a delivery from Krunal Pandya back onto his stumps.
Pandya struck again in his next over, castling dangerman Rinku Singh for 12 off the last ball of his spell to end up with the splendid figures of 4/29.
Patidar then took the bold step of bringing back leggie Suyash Sharma who had taken some punishment, going for 41 in his first three overs.
But it paid off as a googly foxed the swashbuckler Andre Russell who went for a slog and missed completely to see his stumps shattered. After Russell’s departure for four, KKR limped to 151/6 in 16 overs.
Suyash Sharma finished his spell with figures of 1/47 and was immediately subbed off, with Devdutt Padikkal coming on as the impact sub. (ap)