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.
Rahane brought up his fifty in style with a six off Suyash Sharma in the ninth over. Narine then smashed a six and four off the last two balls off the over, which went for 22, the most expensive of the innings.
The hundred partnership between the duo came up in the next over when Narine smashed Salam over long on for his third six of the innings. But Narine fell off the very next ball, being caught by the keeper Jitesh for 44 off 26 balls to leave KKR at 107/2 after 10 overs.
As is often the case after a big partnership, one wicket followed another, with Rahane holing out to Salam on the backward square leg boundary off Pandya in the next over.
The skipper had done his job, with 56 off 31 balls including six fours and four sixes at a stupendous strike rate of 180.65.
A dramatic opening over by Josh Hazlewood saw Quinton de Kock hit a boundary off the second ball before offering an absolute dolly from a top-edge that was put down by Suyash Sharma next ball.
But Hazlewood had the last laugh when de Kock got an inner edge to keeper Jitesh Sharma two balls later.
After two quiet overs, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane took Rasikh Dar Salam to the cleaners, smashing him for 16 in the fourth over including two sixes.
Patidar then introduced spin for the first time in the form of Krunal Pandya who was unable to stem the flow of runs. Narine creamed him for a six off the first ball and Rahane closed out the over with successive boundaries.
Yash Dayal who had opened the bowling was then brought back only to disappear for 20 as KKR raced to 60/1 in six overs.
IPL 2025 kicked off at the Eden Gardens on Saturday with a grand opening ceremony featuring a speech by Shah Rukh Khan followed by performances by Shreya Ghoshal, Disha Patani and Karan Aujla.
SRK was then joined on stage by Virat Kohli and Rinku Singh who both shook a leg with him.
All of this delayed the toss by 15 minutes, which was won by RCB skipper Rajat Patidar who elected to bowl first.
Here are the playing XIs of both teams:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Rasikh Dar Salam, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal
Kolkata Knight Riders: Quinton de Kock, Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Spencer Johnson, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy