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Krunal, Kohli, Salt thrash KKR on opening night of IPL 2025
The first IPL after the mega auction brings with it much anticipation of new alliances and loyalties. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will be thrilled that their latest acquisitions played an impactful role in their emphatic start to IPL 2025 against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Josh Hazelwood used the spongy bounce to scuttle KKR’s powerplay and death overs with analysis of 4-0-22-1, Krunal Pandya ended Ajinkya Rahane’s high-intent fifty in a spell of 4-0-29-3, Suvash Sharma salvaged an ordinary night with the massive wicket of Andre Russell, and Phil Salt killed the chase with 56 off 31, identical score to Rahane’s. A regular fixture at RCB, Virat Kohli then sealed the game with 59 off 36 with 22 balls to spare in the chase of 175.
Known for pushing convention, KKR played safe with their captaincy choice post the auction. Rahane the batter will have to allay doubts practically every day, but he got off to a good start as he and Sunil Narine smashed 98 runs in overs four to ten. However, KKR were outplayed pretty much throughout the night outside those seven overs.
It was just two overs at the top but that comprises 10% of the innings in T20s. Hazlewood, unavailable last IPL, was re-acquired by RCB at the auction. Coming off a long injury layoff, he started as if he had never been away: hard length, good pace, extra bounce. He had Quinton de Kock dropped before getting him two balls later in the first over. Then he had Narine swinging and missing through the third over.
RCB did help Rahane out, but he allayed some of the doubts around his batting with a high-intent innings even as Narine struggled to come to terms with the uneven bounce on the pitch. RCB kept feeding him straight balls, and Rahane kept picking them up over the leg side: all his first 30 runs came there. Once Narine joined the mayhem, that slow start was exorcised.
One of the key moments was Narine going after his former team-mate Suyash, who tends to get the better of batters when they play him as a legspinner. Narine kept going over the off side as 22 came off the ninth over.
KKR were 107 for 1 in 9.5 overs when Narine tried to crash Rasikh Salam over the off side but was done in by the extra bounce. Struggling for options until that point, RCB could then go back to Krunal as Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer can both be shut down by spin. In each of his last three overs, Krunal, who used clever changes in pace, picked up a wicket with quicker balls. Rahane holed out to deep midwicket while Venkatesh and Rinku Singh were castled.
The wicket of Rinku brought in Russell, cue for RCB to bowl legspin. Russell’s ordinary record against the wrong’un continued as he failed to pick one from Suyash and lost his middle stump. Since 2018 he averages 13.41 and strikes at 123.24 against the wrong’un. That wicket was worth about 40 runs.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi couldn’t get going as the ball gripped the surface. Hazlewood and Yash Dayal used the middle of the pitch masterfully to concede just 23 in the last four overs.
Salt, who played a huge role in KKR’s title run with an average of 58.33 and a strike rate of 185.18 in Kolkata last year, soon reminded KKR they should not have let him go. The first ball of the chase was crashed wide of mid-off for four. The intent never stopped especially with Kohli turbo-charged during the powerplay. KKR were forced to bring in Varun Chakravarthy in the fourth over, and Salt took 20 off him. Also, the ball had stopped gripping by then possibly because of the dew.
By the time Varun got the better of Salt, RCB had reached 95 in 8.3 overs. The asking rate had dropped under seven, and Kohli was never going to let such a chase slip. However, what will thrill RCB is that Kohli kept the intent up and sought to get them a big net-run-rate boost. He slog-swept Varun for a six in his last over when it would have been easy to just play him out. New captain Rajat Patidar played the perfect little hand at the other end with 34 off 16 as RCB romped home.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 177 for 3 in 16.2 overs (Virat Kohli 59*, Phil Salt 56, Devdut Padikkal 10, Rajat Patidar 34,Liam Livingstone 15*; Vaibhav Arora 1-42, Varun Chakravarthy 1-43,Sunil Narine 1-27) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 174 for 8 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 56, Sunil Narine 44, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 30, Rinku Singh 12; Krunal Pandya 3-29, Josh Hazlewood 2-22, Yash Dayal 1-25, Rasikh Salam 1-35, Suyash Sharma 1-47) by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a naval ceasefire in the Black Sea in separate deals with the US, after three days of peace talks in Saudi Arabia.
Washington said all parties would continue working toward a “durable and lasting peace” in statements announcing the agreements, which would reopen an important trade route.
They have also committed to “develop measures” to implement a previously agreed ban on attacking each other’s energy infrastructure, the White House said.
But Russia said the naval ceasefire would only come into force after a number of sanctions against its food and fertiliser trade were lifted.
US officials have been separately meeting negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv in Riyadh with the aim of brokering a truce between the two sides. The Russian and Ukrainian delegations have not met directly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the deal to halt strikes in the Black Sea was a step in the right direction.
“It is too early to say that it will work, but these were the right meetings, the right decisions, the right steps,” he told a press conference in Kyiv.
“No-one can accuse Ukraine of not moving towards sustainable peace after this,” he added, after US President Donald Trump had previously accused him of blocking a peace deal.
But shortly after Washington’s announcement, the Kremlin said the Black Sea ceasefire would not take effect until sanctions were lifted from Russian banks, producers and exporters involved in the international food and fertiliser trades.
The measures demanded by Russia include reconnecting the banks concerned to the SwiftPay payment system, lifting restrictions on servicing ships under the Russian flag involved in the food trade, and on the supply of agricultural machinery and other goods needed for the production of food.
It was unclear from the White House’s statement when the agreement is meant to come into force.
When asked about lifting the sanctions, Trump told reporters: “We’re thinking about all of them right now. We’re looking at them.”
Washington’s statement on the US-Russia talks does say the US will “help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertiliser exports”.
Speaking in Kyiv, Zelensky described this as a “weakening of positions”.
He also said Ukraine would push for further sanctions on Russia and more military support from the US if Moscow reneged on its commitments.
Later, in his nightly address to Ukrainians, Zelensky accused the Kremlin of lying when it said the Black Sea ceasefire depended on sanctions being lifted.
Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said “third countries” could oversee parts of the deal.
But he warned that the movement of Russian warships beyond the “eastern part of the Black Sea” would be treated as a violation of the agreement and a “threat to the national security of Ukraine”.
“In this case Ukraine will have full right to exercise right to self-defence,” he added.
A previous arrangement allowing safe passage of commercial ships in the Black Sea was agreed in 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of that year.
Both Ukraine and Russia are major grain exporters, and prices rocketed after the start of the war.
The “Black Sea grain deal” was put in place to allow cargo ships travelling to and from Ukraine to safely navigate without being attacked by Russia. The deal facilitated the movement of grain, sunflower oil and other products required for food production, such as fertiliser, through the Black Sea.
It was initially in place for a period of 120 days but, after multiple extensions, Russia pulled out in July 2023, claiming key parts of the agreement had not been implemented.
[BBC]
New (or returning) players have hogged the limelight this first week of IPL 2025 and it was no different in Ahmedabad where last season’s title-winning captain announced himself in grand style. Shreyas Iyer led Punjab Kings’ batting line-up to their highest total of all time, and then victory over Gujarat Titans by 11 runs.
Iyer had a century for the taking. He was 97 off 42 when the final over began, but he did not face a single ball of it, having told his partner Shashank Singh not to worry about the landmark. He had said prior to the start of the season that he wanted to bat at No. 3 and he showed against GT the extent of damage he can do from there. His career-best IPL score included nine sixes. Only once in this tournament has he cleared the boundary more often, and to bat this way was a conscious decision.
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology Gananath Obeyesekere has passed away at the age of 95.
Russia and Ukraine agree naval ceasefire in Black Sea
Shreyas Iyer’s IPL best leads Punjab Kings to winning start
Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere passes away aged 95
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