What would an IPL match be without a touch of excitement? The opening match of IPL 2025, featuring the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, set a vibrant tone for the tournament's 18th season. The RCB's new ball bowlers initially limited KKR to a mere 9 runs for 1 wicket in the first three overs. However, Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine quickly turned the tide, amassing 51 runs in the subsequent three overs, concluding the powerplay at 60 for 1. A notable incident occurred during the 7th over.

On the fourth delivery bowled by Rasikh Salam Dar, Sunil Narine was caught off guard by an unexpected bounce. The square-leg umpire deemed the delivery too high and signaled it as a wide. Meanwhile, the RCB players were considering whether to challenge the wide call using the DRS, as the new playing conditions allow for hawk-eye technology to assess height-related wide calls.

Virat Kohli noticed that the bails had been dislodged. He inquired of wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma, "How did the bails fall?" to which Sharma responded, "I don't know; I was focused on the ball."

RCB captain Rajat Patidar made a subdued appeal, but the umpires declined to respond. Replays revealed that Sunil Narine's bat made contact with the stumps, resulting in the bails being dislodged. This raises the question of why the umpire did not declare Narine out for hitting the wicket.

The likely reason is that the umpire had already indicated a wide ball before Narine's bat struck the stumps, rendering the ball dead.

Narine played a significant role, scoring 44 runs off 26 balls, contributing to a solid third-wicket partnership of 103 runs off 55 deliveries, with a scoring rate exceeding ten runs per over. In doing so, he also achieved the milestone of 100 sixes in the IPL.

Ajinkya Rahane, who last represented India in a T20I in 2016 and stepped in for Shreyas Iyer, delivered a bold performance, scoring 56 runs off 31 balls. However, the efforts of Rahane and Narine were thwarted by left-arm spinner Krunal, who excelled with figures of 3/29 during the middle overs, dismissing a well-set Rahane along with KKR's key players Venkatesh Iyer (6) and Rinku Singh (12) in consecutive overs.

KKR's lower middle order, which included their costly INR 23.75 crore acquisition Iyer, along with Rinku Singh and Russell, struggled significantly, managing only 23 runs and losing two wickets in the final four overs, which proved detrimental to their innings.

Josh Hazlewood, who began strongly with the new ball, concluded with impressive figures of 2/22.

Read Also: Dhoni commits to playing IPL for CSK 'even in a wheelchair,' addresses retirement speculation: 'They will keep me going'

"Get the latest Bollywood entertainment news, trending celebrity news, latest celebrity news, new movie reviews, latest entertainment news, latest Bollywood news, and Bollywood celebrity fashion & style updates!"