🏏IPL 2025 - Match 58: KKR vs RCB on 17th May 2025 at Bengaluru🏏 - Page 4

Outside Chinnaswamy people are selling Virat's test jerseys instead of regular RCB jerseys

Originally posted by: SlatePencil

Outside Chinnaswamy people are selling Virat's test jerseys instead of regular RCB jerseys

Haan for past 3 days they have been doing this..a deserved farewell ..

Originally posted by: Swathi_7

Haan for past 3 days they have been doing this..a deserved farewell ..

But will the same done by MI fans for Rohit?It's sad that Rohit and Virat didn't get a farewell test match.

Originally posted by: SlatePencil

But will the same done by MI fans for Rohit?It's sad that Rohit and Virat didn't get a farewell test match.

Now that rcbians do ,mumbaikars also will do..

I’m not as excited about this anymore. It felt thrilling at first, but now it’s just not the same.

Thanks for the tag Madhu.

May the best team win.

Cheers..

Nine days on from when IPL 2025 was suspended, it marks its return for a frenetic two weeks of cricket to wrap up the season. It has been a nine-day pause that has felt much longer, with fans accustomed to cricket action every evening missing that piece of their daily routine. But the IPL is back, resuming with the same fixture that got us going two months ago. It’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru up against Kolkata Knight Riders at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, with the hosts one win away from qualifying through to the playoffs, and the visitors a loss away from being eliminated.

Bangalore is expecting rain on Saturday evening, which might play spoilsport for any hopes of a full game after what has been a rainy and damp week in the Karnataka city. The emphasis in this game is on the RCB fans wanting to pay tribute to Virat Kohli following his retirement from Test cricket: the memo has been sent out to all attending fans to turn up in white jerseys and t-shirts, to commemorate a modern hero of the city who made this his second home. For their sakes, hopefully there is enough cricket to produce a result: a rain-out would be a literal damp squib after the excitement surrounding IPL 2025’s return.

If it does come down to the cricket, it’s difficult not to back RCB, even if they are set to miss Josh Hazlewood as he nurses a shoulder injury. This pitch does have plenty in it to keep the bowlers interested, which will mean that as always KKR’s spin twins of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy will be key to this battle. But RCB likely have too much batting quality and are just that little bit better across the board with their bowling: it’s difficult to see the hosts fail today, unless the break has leeched them of all the momentum they did so well to generate.

Krunal Pandya in good form

Krunal is enjoying his best IPL season this year, having taken 14 wickets. RCB’s spin has an 8.5 economy rate this year.

Russell key for KKR!

Russell has managed more runs in his last two innings alone (95, strike rate - 131), than he did in the entire season (72, strike rate - 131). He will be key for KKR tonight!

No Hazlewood!

There will be no Hazlewood for RCB, who is dealing with a shoulder injury. RCB are in touch with Cricket Australia, and Hazlewood is expected to return for the playoffs.

Manish Pandey on KKR’s woes

Speaking ahead of the match, Manish Pandey said, “I just think last time [in 2024] we were winning games, we won a lot of games which is very important in a tournament like IPL. This time we were winning one, we were losing one. The whole tournament has been like that.”