Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
On Wednesday, March 26, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) registered their maiden win of IPL 2025, beating Rajasthan Royals comprehensively by eight wickets at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. On the back of Quinton de Kock’s unbeaten 97-run knock, the Knight Riders comfortably chased the 152-run target in 17.3 overs.
For the unversed, KKR skipper, Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and decided to field first, wanting the Royals to take the strike early on their home ground. Youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson opened the innings for RR, scoring 29 and 13 runs respectively. RR’s stand-in skipper, Riyan Parag also could not do much with the bat at his home ground and fell after scoring 25 runs.
KKR jumps to sixth place with 8-wicket win vs RR in IPL2025
Wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel looked in good touch as he played a cameo of 28-ball 33, but the middle-order struggled to get runs on the board and eventually posted 151 at the loss of nine wickets in their stipulated 20 overs. On the other hand, all KKR bowlers finished among the wickets, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Moeen Ali and Varun Chakravarthy, all picked two wickets each whereas Spencer Johnson got one to his name.
In the run-chase, it came as a surprise as Moeen Ali joined Quinton de Kock to open the innings. Although, Moeen’s inning was cut short early with Riyan Parag and Maheesh Theekshana producing a brilliant run-out, Quinton de Kock led from the front, playing an unbeaten 97-run knock.
He got decent support from skipper Ajinkya Rahane (18 off 15) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (22* off 17) as they Knight Riders chased the target in 17.3 overs with ease. With a comfortable victory, KKR jumped to sixth place in the points table, bagging two points under their belt.
