Kolkata Knight Riders have held bragging rights against Royal Challengers Bangalore ever since the first ever match of the Indian Premier League 18 years ago but on Saturday, at a packed Eden Gardens, a small dent was made to that head-to-head record.
New friends, old enemies for Kohli
KKR are still ahead of RCB in their face-offs but Bangalore went back home the happier side in one of the most hyped IPL season openers in recent memory.
Spirited comeback with the ball
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 22, 2025
Dominating effort with the bat@RCBTweets are up and away in #TATAIPL 2025 with a commanding win over #KKR
Scorecardhttps://t.co/C9xIFpQDTn#KKRvRCB pic.twitter.com/zs6fXmhYv9
Before the IPL 2025 tournament opener, KKR had won 20 of their 34 matches vs RCB and won 6 of their last 7 encounters.
With Ajinkya Rahane back in KKR ranks and taking over the captaincy mantle, it did look like the hosts were in control and storming towards a 200+ total before Krunal Pandya ran through their batting order with the key wickets of Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh.
KKR were restricted to 174 for 8 and the chase was a cakewalk for RCB who were aided along by a 95-run opening stand between Virat Kohl and Phil Salt, both men notching up aggressive half-centuries.
In the course of his innings, Kohli got to 1000 runs against the Knight Riders.
It was a special result for RCB, who had last defeated KKR back in 2022 by 3 wickets in Navi Mumbai. Between that game 3 years ago and the one on Saturday night, KKR defeated RCB by 81 runs, 21 runs, 7 wickets and by 1 run in an edge-of-the seat thriller at the Eden Gardens.
