Bengaluru defeated defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 wickets

NPLSPORTS

March 23, 2025 Cricket, T20 Series 2 min read

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Kathmandu: Royal Challengers Bangalore have made a winning start to the 18th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket after Virat Kohli and Philip Salt scored half-centuries.

Bengaluru defeated defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 wickets in the match played on Saturday. Chasing the target of 175 runs set by Kolkata, Bengaluru achieved it in 16.2 overs for the loss of 3 wickets.

Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 59 while Salt scored 56. Rajat Patidar scored 34. Liam Livingstone remained unbeaten on 15. Kolkata’s Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora and Sunil Narine took one wicket each.

Earlier, Kolkata, who were invited to bat first after losing the toss at Eden Gardens, scored 174 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs. Captain Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine scored 44 runs. Angkrish Raghuvanshi scored 30 runs.

Bangalore’s Krunal Pandya took 3 wickets for 29 runs in 4 overs. Josh Hazlewood took 2 wickets and Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma and Rasikh Salama took 1 wicket each.

With this win, Bengaluru has added 2 points and has also achieved a good net run rate right from the start.

There will be two matches on Sunday. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals will play at 4:45 PM, and Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings will play at 8:45 PM.