IPL: Salt sets up the chase, Kohli finishes it against Royals
Somshuvra LahaSomshuvra Laha
Apr 13, 2025 08:42 PM IST
Kolkata: Phil Salt’s explosive 65 helped RCB chase 173 against Rajasthan Royals, while Kohli scored his 100th T20 fifty in a dominant win.
Kolkata: Phil Salt and Jofra Archer know each other from their early years in Barbados but interestingly have never played against each other. Matchups suggested Archer would be a handful, and he was. First ball to Salt, who was born in Wales but raised in Barbados, Archer got the ball to shape back in to almost cut him into half, brush his back thigh to miss everything and fly wide of Sanju Samson’s dive for four. Two balls later, Salt was beaten for pace but the top-edge still had enough power to send the ball over fine-leg for six. Next over, Shimron Hetmyer scampered across midwicket and almost took a scintillating catch but Salt got away with a boundary. Next over, Salt finally connected, and the ball was deposited in the stands beyond deep square-leg.
You need this kind of luck to persevere. Royal Challengers Bengaluru however were granted more than what they would have settled for when Riyan Parag dropped Virat Kohli at long-on in the fourth over. RCB didn’t look back from there. Same over, Sandeep Sharma spilled a return catch from Salt, and then in the sixth over Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped Salt on the edge of the infield. By the time Salt was finally caught, he had cruised to 65 off 33 balls. Kohli took over from there and finished the chase with 15 balls to spare, scoring his 100th T20 fifty (62 off 45 balls), going level with David Warner with 66 IPL fifties, the most by an Indian. This was RCB’s fourth away win as they moved up to third on the points table.
Not everything about Salt’s innings was streaky. To Archer, he wanted to shuffle across the stumps and target the smaller boundary to the right. To Sandeep, he made room to score through mid-off and covers. The range had been measured out, and all Salt had to do was connect properly. Maheesh Theekshana was thumped through short fine-leg before Salt muscled him over long-on for six. And when Sandeep tried to take pace off the ball, Salt came down the track to go high over long-off for six. It was the kind of start that can’t go to waste, not in the chase of 173.
Short of ideas in batting and bowling, Rajasthan Royals have too many creases to iron out now. To score just 45 in the Powerplay—RCB responded with 65—was already the kind of head start you don’t want to give to the opponents. Jaiswal displayed exemplary range and was quick on his feet, but the same couldn’t be said about the rest of the batting. Sanju Samson struggled to get going, Parag was undone by a soft dismissal and Shimron Hetmyer just couldn’t hit a six.
The sole exception was Dhruv Jurel, that too after being dropped by Kohli at long off in the 17th over. Jurel made the most of that life, helping Royals add 47 runs in the last four overs but so emphatic was RCB’s start that Royals couldn’t contain that momentum. “We knew they would come hard at us and I think they won the game in the powerplay,” said Samson after the match. Also effective was RCB’s bowling, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal denying the batters pace on the ball before Krunal Pandya returned an economy of 7.25. Starved of sixes—RR hit only five in their innings—the desperation led to Parag and Jaiswal falling in the space of 15 balls at a phase when they should have been accelerating. That and RCB’s superior Powerplay batting ultimately spelt out the difference.
