IPL 2025: 3 milestones achieved during RCB’s dominating 7-wicket win over KKR in Match 1

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) hosted the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 curtain raiser on Saturday, March 22, at Eden Gardens. The Men in Red and Black, under a new captain in Rajat Patidar, opened their campaign with a seven-wicket win.

It all started with RCB winning the toss and electing to bowl first. The hosts’ start to the innings wasn’t ideal as Quinton de Kock perished in the first over. Sunil Narine and skipper Ajinkya Rahane stitched together a partnership, with the latter notching up a brilliant half-century.

Following their dismissals, only Angkrish Raghuvanshi could put up a decent score as Krunal Pandya ran through KKR’s lineup to record figures of 3/29 in his four-over spell as the home side closed their innings on 174/8.

Coming to the chase, Phil Salt made the most of the conditions and took the opposition bowlers to the cleaners. Courtesy of the power-hitting, RCB openers Salt and Virat Kohli notched up a massive 80 runs in the powerplay. The former was eventually dismissed in the ninth over after scoring a 31-ball 56.

Kohli then led the charge with the bat and played a composed knock, steering the innings from one end. Final touches by Liam Livingstone, who scored the winning runs in the end, made sure that the visitors completed the chase comfortably.

Here are three milestones achieved by players during the first match of the IPL 2025:

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#3 Sunil Narine completed 100 sixes in IPL

2025 IPL - Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bengaluru - Source: Getty

Before today’s match, Sunil Narine was three sixes short of completing 100 maximums in the tournament. Opening the batting for KKR, the all-rounder played a 26-ball 44-run knock, including five fours and three sixes.

With that, he achieved a personal career milestone and touched the three-figure mark. Narine has been a crucial cog in KKR’s setup over the years, and he continued to prove his worth to the franchise. Nonetheless, his efforts went in vain as RCB clinched a dominant win.

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#2 Virat Kohli became only the third Indian to play 400 or more career T20 games

The KKR vs RCB match became Virat Kohli’s T20 career’s 400th match as he became only the third Indian cricketer to achieve those numbers. Only Rohit Sharma (448 T20s) and Dinesh Karthik (412 T20s) are ahead of the former RCB captain in this regard. Overall, Kohli became the 23rd cricketer to achieve this feat.

The 36-year-old had a memorable outing against KKR in his team’s first game of the season. He was the top scorer for his side during the run chase and notched up an unbeaten 59 runs in 36 deliveries. RCB players put up a commanding performance to start their campaign on a winning note.

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#1 Virat Kohli became the first player to score 1000 runs against four different teams in IPL

Kohli, playing his 400th T20 game, became the first player to score 1000 runs against four different IPL teams in the tournament’s history. Ahead of the first match of IPL 2025, Kohli needed just 38 runs to complete 1000 runs against KKR.

While he achieved that milestone in style, he also became the first cricketer to reach the four-figure mark against four teams, having scored over 1000 runs over Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Delhi Capitals (DC) and Punjab Kings (PBKS).