Kolkata: It doesn’t matter whether he’s playing for

KKR

or RCB, Phil Salt can still do the impossible. The former KKR opener eased into his new role as Virat Kohli’s opening partner at

RCB

by hitting a 31-ball 56 (9x4, 6x2) against his old team. Kohli too came good in the IPL season opener with a 36-ball 59 not out as RCB, chasing 175, finished things off in style, with seven wickets and 22 balls to spare, here at the Eden Gardens on Saturday night.
Salt essentially did what Quinton de Kock couldn’t. The Knight Riders suffered an early jolt when they lost opener De Kock off the fifth ball of the match. Although the purple brigade’s new skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine steadied the innings with a 103-run second-wicket stand, the power-packed batting unit failed to fire against the spinners, particularly Krunal Pandya (3/29 off his four overs), eventually putting up 174/8 after RCB skipper Rajat Patidar put them in after winning the toss.
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Salt, on the other hand, began dictating terms right from the word go against his former side. The opener took Vaibhav Arora, who came in as an ‘Impact Player’ for Angkrish Raghuvanshi, to the cleaners, hitting him for two fours and one six in the third over. Rahane was forced to bring in his key player Varun Chakravarthy early, but the Englishman collected 21 runs in the mystery spinner’s first over with three fours and one six.

Virat Kohli then set the packed Eden stands on fire with spectacular consecutive sixes over left-arm pacer Spencer Johnson’s head in the very next over as RCB collected 80 runs in the first six overs to set the tone. Chakravarthy finally got Salt caught by Johnson at short third man for a well-made 56 off 31 balls.

But there was no stopping chasemaster Kohli, who got to his fifty in 30 balls. Kohli stayed unbeaten with the help of four fours and three sixes and Patidar played a 16-ball 34 cameo. Liam Livingstone finished off with a boundary off Johnson.
Earlier, Pandya, for whom RCB went specifically at the auction, did not disappoint as the left-arm spinner put the brakes on the KKR innings in the middle overs, bowling stump to stump. He not only dried up the runs from his end but clean bowled Venkatesh Iyer (6) and Rinku Singh (12).

An expensive Suyash Sharma ended on a happy note by picking up the prized wicket of Andre Russell when the West Indian missed a slog, the ball coming in sharply to dislodge his stumps. KKR lost the momentum, losing five wickets for 43 runs.