During the IPL 2025 opening at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens on Saturday, March 22, vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer of the Kolkata Knight Riders was caught off guard by a fast bouncer from Krunal Pandya, the spin-bowling all-rounder for Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

The first delivery of the 13th over of KKR’s innings was the odd event.

Krunal Pandya changed things up by hitting the southpaw with a furious short-pitched bumper while bowling from left-arm-around.

Because it was too high and a little down the leg-side, the delivery was deemed a wide. Jitesh Sharma did a great job acting quickly to prevent what would have otherwise been byes.

Curiously, Iyer inside-edged a 101 kph skidder onto the stumps and was removed by Krunal on the very next ball. Iyer was the second person Krunal fired. He finished as RCB’s most successful bowler, giving up just 29 runs in his allotted four overs for three wickets.

Narine and Rahane lead KKR to 174.

Following Quinton de Kock’s early departure, Sunil Narine and captain Ajinkya Rahane used their power hitting to create a fantastic foundation for the first innings. While Narine scored 44 off 26 with five fours and three sixes, Rahane hit 56 off 31 balls with six fours and four sixes. But both of them left in consecutive overs, and the KKR innings was put on hold as a result of their dismissals.

Rinku Singh added 12 points, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi scored 30 off 22 deliveries. But there was little that the other batters could contribute. KKR finished their 20 overs at 174/8 after 20 overs, with Ramandeep Singh remaining undefeated at six off nine deliveries and Andre Russell falling for just four.