23 March,2025 05:40 AM IST | Kolkata | Arup Chatterjee
RCB’s Phil Salt during his 56 against KKR at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday. Pic/AFP
Royal Challengers Bengaluru, replying to Kolkata Knight Riders 174 for 8, were 75 without loss after five overs as IPL-18 opened at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
Phil Salt, who played a stellar role in KKR's title-triumph last season, joined Virat Kohli and the two were already demonstrating how dangerous they can be this year as an opening combo. Kohli is batting on a 9-ball 25 with two boundaries and two sixes while Salt, who has hogged the strike, is rubbing it in. He is unbeaten on 48 off 21 with eight boundaries and a couple of sixes.
Earlier, put into bat, skipper Ajinkya Rahane came in to turbo-charge KKR with a flurry of boundaries after the early loss of Quinton de Kock and a misfiring Sunil Narine threatened to take the innings into a slump. The 36-year-old Rahane began with a couple of sixes and a four in the fourth over, bowled by the hapless Yash Dayal, and there was no relenting in the murderous mood as Dayal, Krunal Pandya, Rasikh Dar and Suyash Sharma felt the heat. The blistering attack allowed Narine to settle into his usual role as the Powerplay produced 60 runs with Rahane scoring at an incredible strike-rate of close to 244. Narine's rate of 113.3 paled in comparison.
The second wicket yielded 103 runs off 55 deliveries but when the two departed in quick succession, the rest of the daunting batting line-up couldn't quite match the early assault. Narine edged a rising delivery from Rasikh Dar for a 26-ball 44 that had five boundaries and three sixes while Rahane, who was caught on the boundary trying to hit Krunal Pandya, ended up on 56 off 31. He smashed six boundaries and four sixes. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who came in at three-down, tried to hold the innings together but wickets fell at regular intervals and the final six overs produced just 33 runs with four more batsmen being dismissed.
Pandya, who went for 15 in his first over, returned impressive figures of 4-0-29-3 while Josh Hazelwood came back in the death overs to return with two for 22 from his four. Even the likes of Suyash and Dayal bowled well in the death overs.
