Thanks to a strong partnership of 95 runs between Virat Kohli and Phil Salt, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have made a great start by defeating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at their home. The first match of the 18th season of IPL was played on Saturday at Eden Gardens. After losing the toss and batting first, the defending champions scored 174 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs based on a century partnership between Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine. In reply, RCB scored 177 runs for the loss of three wickets in 16.2 overs and won the match by seven wickets.

Salt returned to the pavilion after playing a half-century inning.

Phil Salt and Virat Kohli gave the team a great start. There was a partnership of 95 runs for the first wicket between the two. The star batsman of England completed the seventh half-century of his IPL career in just 25 balls and returned to the pavilion after playing a strong innings of 56 runs. He was made a victim by Varun Chakraborty.

RCB made the highest score of powerplay

Earlier, Salt and Kohli scored 80 runs without any loss in the powerplay. This is RCB's second-highest score in powerplay in IPL history. RCB made the highest score in powerplay last year against Gujarat Titans. At that time, the team scored 92 runs for one wicket in the first six overs. At the same time, RCB hit 14 boundaries in the powerplay against KKR. This is the third time RCB has hit so many boundaries during the powerplay.

Kohli led the team to victory.

Devdutt Padikkal, who came to bat as an impact player after Salt, could score only 10 runs. At the same time, captain Rajat Patidar was dismissed after scoring 34 runs in 16 balls and brought the team close to victory. In this match, King Kohli completed the 56th fifty of his IPL career in 30 balls. He looked in great form and was successful in leading the team to victory. Kohli also became the fifth-highest run scorer in T20 and surpassed former Australian opener David Warner in this regard. Kohli remained unbeaten on 59 in his 400th T20 while Liam Livingstone scored 15*. For KKR, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakraborty, and Sunil Narine took one wicket each.

Rahane and Narine got off to a good start.

Kolkata got off to a bad start. Josh Hazlewood took the wicket of Quinton de Kock in the very first over. He could score just four runs. After this, Sunil Narine and Ajinkya Rahane took over the charge. The two shared a blistering partnership of 103 runs in 55 balls for the second wicket. Captain Rahane hit the 31st half-century of his IPL career in just 25 balls. He was dismissed after scoring 56 runs in 31 balls while West Indies star cricketer Narine scored 44 runs with the help of five fours and three sixes.

KKR's batting order is scattered like a pack of cards
After this, KKR's innings faltered and they lost wickets in bunches. Angkrish Raghuvanshi scored 30, Venkatesh Iyer scored six, Andre Russell scored four, and Harshit Rana scored five runs. At the same time, Ramandeep Singh remained unbeaten after scoring six and Spencer Johnson scored one run. For RCB, Krunal Pandya took three wickets while Josh Hazlewood took two wickets. Apart from this, Yash Dayal, Rasikh Salam, and Suyash Sharma got one success each.

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