A total of 174 was never going to be enough. Not against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Not at Eden Gardens and certainly not with Virat Kohli and Phil Salt setting the stage ablaze with an electrifying start that all but sealed Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) fate well before the game reached its conclusion, as per ESPNcricinfo. By the end of the third over, RCB had already raced to 37 runs. Salt led the early charge, but Kohli was right behind him, matching the intensity.
Then came the defining moment, an over that all but ended the contest. In the fourth over, KKR introduced Varun Chakravarthy much earlier than planned, hoping to stem the flow of runs. Kohli took a single off the first ball, but what followed was sheer destruction. Salt smashed Chakravarthy for 2, 4, 6, 4, and 4 in the next five deliveries, dismantling KKR's spin spearhead with ruthless efficiency.
Former India cricketer Varun Aaron said on ESPNcricinfo's T20 TimeOut show, "This is completely walking the talk, the way Salt and Virat started, and the way Virat ended, [it] was setting a precedent, and saying, 'you know what, this is the kind of cricket we're going to play; if you can score more than us, all the best'."
"That over quickly sealed it, the confidence of KKR was completely shattered in that over," former India batter Ambati Rayudu added, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
At the ten-over mark, RCB stood at 104/1, with Salt back in the pavilion. KKR, at the same stage, had been 107/2--not a vastly different score but beyond the numbers, the momentum had already swung decisively in RCB's favour. With Kohli still at the crease, the outcome felt inevitable. After all, it was a chase.
"Kohli, generally, loves to finish the game, stay not out. But
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