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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]
Chennai Super King’s (CSK) slim playoff hopes were crushed emphatically by Gujarat Titans [GT] in Ahmedabad on Thursday night as they sealed a top-two spot with an 89-run win.
Sent in to bat on a red-soil surface with pace and bounce, GT went all-in to post 229. Shubman Gill’s 23-ball half-century set it up for late fireworks from B Sai Sudarshan (84 off 53) and Jos Buttler (57 not out off 27).
In reply, CSK’s top five perished inside eight overs before Shivam Dube tonked 47 off 17 to briefly inject life into the chase. His dismissal left the door ajar for GT to knock over the lower order, which they did courtesy Rashid Khan to bowl CSK out in the 14th over.
In the game’s second over, Sanju Samson left the field to nurse a finger injury after Spencer Johnson’s hard-length delivery down the leg side suddenly swerved away after passing the batter. He left the field immediately, and didn’t return for the rest of the innings with Kartik Sharma taking over the wicketkeeping duties. The nature of his on-field injury meant Samson could return to bat in his original position, but he lasted all of one ball, nicking a Mohammed Siraj away-swinger in the very first over.
Having taken a wicket off the first ball in GT’s defense of 230, Siraj then saw Ruturaj Gaikwad loft him through the line over the covers, and then walk across to scoop him for six. In his next over, he saw the CSK captain whip him nonchalantly over the midwicket fence. Siraj, though, remained unperturbed and removed him with a length ball that ducked back in to crash into the stumps. One ball later, he silenced the home fans rooting for local hero Urvil Patel by having him top-edge a flick straight down Prasidh Krishna’s throat at deep backward square leg.
At the start of the ninth, CSK were 72 for 5. It took Dube all of two overs to get the fans excited. Having endured a poor season, he began by thumping left-arm seamer Arshad Khan for 6, 4 and 4 in an over that went for 19. He went into overdrive in the next, thumping Jason Holder’s hard-length delivery over long-on for six. And when Holder went full, Dube’s long levers helped scythe the ball behind square. Overs 8-10 fetched 37. But one ball after launching Rashid over deep midwicket, Dube was out to him when Gill, running back from cover, pulled off a stunner. CSK lost their last four wickets in the next three overs, with Rashid finishing with 3 for 18.
Long before his catching brilliance and the direct hit to run out Kartik, Gill began like a bullet train, surging to a 23-ball half-century to lay down the marker, even as Sai Sudharsan buckled down to play second fiddle. He was run-a-ball for his first 22 deliveries en route to a seventh century stand with Gill – the most by an opening pair in the IPL.
Gill survived on 51 despite feathering an attempted pull with none of the opposition appealing for caught behind. But it didn’t cost CSK a lot as he fell soon after for 64. Once Gill perished, Sai Sudharsan carried on to bring up his fifth consecutive IPL fifty – joining Virender Sehwag, David Warner and Buttler to this feat.
Sudharsan would eventually fall for 84, along the way surpassing Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s tally to take back the Orange Cap.
Buttler, who came in after Gill’s wicket, launched into the bowling from the get-go. He took particular liking to Noor Ahmad, depositing him deep into the stands to quickly offset a brief slowdown. Amid the carnage from one end, left-arm seamer Gurjanpreet Singh held away, mixing his cutters with wide yorkers to finish with 4-0-31-0, the figures taking a dent only because his final over went for 15.
Buttler too got to his half-century off 23 balls when he scythed two attempted wide yorkers from Anshul Kamboj to the cover boundary. Kamboj went for 56 off his four overs, along the way conceding the most sixes in a single IPL season. It left CSK needing a mammoth 230, which they never looked like challenging on the night.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 229 for 4 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 84, Shubman GIll 64, Jos Buttler 57*; Mukesh Choudhary 1-36, Spence Johnson 1-47, Anshul Kamboj 1-56) beat Chennai Super Kings 140 in 13.4 overs (Mathew Short 24, Rutraj Gaikwad 16, Kartik Sharma 19, Shivam Dube 47, Anshul Kamboj 19; Rashid Khan 3-18, Mohammed Siraj 3-26, Kagiso Rabada 3-32) by 89 runs
[Cricinfo]
Gaby Lewis has been rested for Ireland’s upcoming T20I tri-series against Pakistan and West Indies at home in Clontarf as she recovers from a recent leg injury but has been named captain – for the first time at a global event – for the T20 World Cup in June-July in England.
Orla Prendergast, the vice-captain for the World Cup, will lead the side in the tri-series in Lewis’ absence. No vice-captain has been named for the tri-series.
In terms of ins and outs, Jane Maguire, the right-arm medium pacer, has been ruled out of contention with an injury, but her sister Aimee Maguire, the left-arm orthodox spinner, has returned from her own injury and has been included in both squads. Apart from the missing Lewis, there are no changes from the squad for the tri-series, which is a 14-member line-up, for the World Cup.
At the T20 World Cup, Ireland have been grouped with tournament hosts England, defending champions New Zealand, Scotland, Sri Lanka and past winners West Indies.
Ireland are ranked ninth in the format, ahead of only Scotland (11th) among the teams in their group, and will start their World Cup campaign on the second day of competition, against Scotland in Manchester.
Ireland were most recently in action at the T20 World Cup qualifiers played in Nepal in January-February this year, and finished second to Bangladesh.
Lewis’ fitness will be key for Ireland at the World Cup, with her being their top-ranked batter, currently at joint-14th on the ICC T20I rankings. She was also the top run getter at the qualifiers with 276 runs in seven innings, scoring her runs at a strike rate of 119.48.
Prendergast is the next best at No. 26, followed by Amy Hunter at No. 29. Prendergast is also the seventh-ranked allrounder in women’s T20Is.
Ireland squad for women’s T20 World Cup
Gaby Lewis (capt), Orla Prendergast (vice-capt), Ava Canning, Christina Coulter Reilly, Alana Dalzell, Laura Delany, Georgina Dempsey, Amy Hunter, Arlene Kelly, Louise Little, Aimee Maguire, Lara McBride, Cara Murray, Leah Paul, Rebecca Stokell
Ireland squad for tri-series against Pakistan and West Indies
Orla Prendergast (capt), Ava Canning, Christina Coulter Reilly, Alana Dalzell, Laura Delany, Georgina Dempsey, Amy Hunter, Arlene Kelly, Louise Little, Aimee Maguire, Lara McBride, Cara Murray, Leah Paul, Rebecca Stokell
[Cricinfo]
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has issued a statement approving the members nominated for the new Selection Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
The appointments have been made by the Sports Minister in accordance with the powers vested under Section 39 (1) of the Sports Law No. 25 of 1973 and the Extraordinary Gazette Notification No. 2437/24 dated May 21, 2025.
The members of the new selection committee are:
Kapila Wijegunawardena – Chairman
Amal Silva – Member
Brendon Kuruppu – Member
Waruna Waragoda – Member
Vanessa De Silva – Member
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