Three Big Reasons for Kolkata Knight Riders’s Defeat: In the first match of IPL 2025, Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 wickets. KKR team, who came out to bat after losing the toss, had a good start.
Captain Ajinkya Rahane along with Sunil Narayan shared a 103-run partnership for the second wicket. But KKR’s finishers could not capitalize on this start. Chasing the target of 175 runs, Virat Kohli and Phil Salt shared a 95-run partnership for the first wicket. RCB achieved the target with 22 balls to spare and won by 7 wickets.
1- Flop show of the middle order
Quinton de Kock was out after scoring 4 runs, but after that captain Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narayan together gave KKR a great start. Both of them made a partnership of 103 runs for the second wicket. Rahane hit his half-century in 25 balls, he scored 39 runs in 16 balls in the powerplay. Sunil Narayan was out after scoring 44 runs and then Ajinkya Rahane returned to the pavilion after playing a good innings of 56 runs. But after this, KKR’s middle order was a complete flop.
Venkatesh Iyer (4), who was sold for 23 crore 75 lakhs, was dismissed cheaply by Krunal Pandya. Big hitters like Rinku Singh (12), Andre Russell (4) were completely flopped. Russell was bowled by Suyash and Rinku Singh was bowled by Krunal. KKR scored 67 runs in the last 10 overs while KKR had scored 107 runs in the first 10 overs.
2- Sending Andre Russell up
Sending Andre Russell to bat higher also did not prove to be right. We know that he is a big hitter and his remaining unbeaten gives courage to other batsmen. Russell came after 15 overs were over. He got bowled in an attempt to hit a big shot on Suyash Sharma’s ball. Ramandeep Singh could have been sent before him, who came after Russell was out. He could not handle the pressure.
3- Rahane’s poor captaincy
Ajinkya Rahane’s poor captaincy also became a big reason for the defeat. Virat Kohli always has difficulty against Sunil Narayan but Rahane did not give him the ball in the initial overs. The result was that both the RCB openers kept scoring runs easily. In the powerplay itself, the RCB opening pair had scored 80 runs without losing a wicket, which made the target even easier. Rahane did not give Narayan an over in the powerplay. The 8th over was Narayan’s first over in the match, before that RCB had scored 86 runs in 7 overs.
Harshit Rana’s recent performance in international cricket was also excellent but captain Rahane put him to bowl in the last over of the powerplay. Harshit gave only 5 runs but after that Rahane handed over the ball to Narayan in his place. Harshit was given the ball in the 13th over, which was his second over but by then it was too late.
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