RCB extend winning run away from home as Kohli and Salt sink Royals

Two markedly different philosophies went head-to-head in Jaipur's first game of IPL 2025. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have built their team to attack from ball one. They have batting depth down to No. 8. Rajasthan Royals (RR) keep going into their games with not enough firepower. They had Wanindu Hasaranga at No. 7. It might not be coincidence that even though it was one of their players that put on a clinic - Yashasvi Jaiswal making 75 of his team's 173 - the opposition ended up winning.

It isn't just that RCB have options all the way down their line-up. They are happy to maximise it with Phil Salt (65) going out there and thinking about only one thing. How to hit boundaries. He got 11 in 32 balls and fell looking for a 12th. This is the way he always plays. This is why he gets paid. He is phenomenal.

At the start of the game, Salt said he had a plan for Jofra Archer. These two have never played against each other but have spent enough time in the same dressing room, going back to their teenage years in Barbados.

When they went head-to-head, it became clear what Salt wanted to do. Get across his crease and open up the leg side leg side. Two sixes and a four came this way.

There were other factors at play as well. Salt was conscious of targeting the smaller boundary. It was on the leg side for Archer. It shifted to the off side for Sandeep Sharma, which was why when he came down the track, he made room as well to hit over mid-off. Salt's power and willingness to put a low price on his wicket is often talked about. Here he was being clever as well.

Neither team lost a wicket in the first six overs but where RCB scored 65 runs, RR could only manage 45, this season's second-lowest powerplay score for no loss. That 20-run difference proved decisive in the end.

Jaiswal was able to score quickly (SR 160) on a slow pitch because he has shots all around the wicket and doesn't always look for the right ball to play them. His first boundary was a prime example, when he turned a back of a length delivery into something else by charging at Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He made good of his match-up against spin - he averages 169.5 against it since IPL 2023 with a strike rate of 148 - because he was willing to indulge reverse sweeps and the lap sweeps.

Just before he was dismissed, Jaiswal played the shot of the day, a scoop off Josh Hazlewood even though the bowler went wide of off stump to deny the leg side to him. The RR opener finished with 75 off 47 with 10 fours and two sixes. His partners at the other end made 47 off 49 balls with four fours and one six.

Sanju Samson had a difficult return to a ground where he's had a lot of recent success. Three of his last six innings in Jaipur have been half-centuries. This one though was a struggle. He was 5 off 11 before falling for 15 off 19. Dhruv Jurel was 2 off 8 and even though he picked up pace later on, with Royals scoring 47 runs in the last four overs, their conservatism came back to bite them. It didn't help either that they dropped four catches in four overs, including those of the two RCB top-scorers Salt (12, 23 and 40) and Virat Kohli (7). Kohli brought up his 100th half-century in T20 cricket. RCB made mistakes too. Shelling catches (there were nine counting both teams). Conceding misfields. But they had the batting firepower to compensate. Their bowlers didn't do too badly either.

Krunal Pandya got through his four overs with an economy rate of 7.25 as he made the most of a pitch that was slow and prevented the ball from coming into the bat. Yash Dayal too harnessed it with his back-of-the-hand slower ball, which took down Riyan Parag at a key point in the game. Royals were building at that point, each of the six overs previously had leaked a boundary but this wicket shifted the momentum. A partnership of 56 off 39 gave away to one where only 21 runs could be scored in 16 balls. Jurel couldn't get going. Jaiswal tried something extravagant - sweeping Hazlewood - to pick up the slack and fell lbw.

Royals have set themselves up in such a way that they have to keep playing the perfect game to win. But in T20 cricket you need a margin of error.