Kohli and Salt star as Bengaluru beat holders Kolkata in IPL opener

Fifties from Virat Kohli (59 not out) and Phil Salt (56) went hard in power-play to set the base for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to chase down 175 and beat defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven wickets in the first game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) IPL 2025 at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday.

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After Krunal Pandya’s 3-29 and Josh Hazlewood's 2-22 helped RCB stage a spirited comeback and restrict KKR to 174/8, Salt and Kohli were blazing from the word go to stitch a 95-run opening partner-ship. Though Salt fell just before the halfway mark of the chase, Kohli remained unbeaten on 59 off 36 balls, as RCB wrapped the emphatic win with 22 balls to spare.

Salt began the chase with a sizzling cover drive off Vaibhav Arora before Kohli flicked him through mid-wicket in the opening over. Salt then drilled a cover drive off Spencer Johnson, before lofting Arora over mid-on on back-to-back balls for a four and six respectively.

After Kohli swiped Arora through the line for four, Salt ended the third over by upper-cutting the pacer for six. Salt’s onslaught continued as used his wrists to hit Varun Chakaravarthy for two fours and a six down the ground, before pulling him over the deep square-leg fence for four more, as 21 runs came off the fourth over.