KKR vs RCB Match Prediction: Who will win today's 1st Match of Indian Premier League between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru? – SportsTiger

HOME / Cricket match predictions / KKR vs RCB Match Prediction: Who will win today’s 1st Match of Indian Premier League between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru?
Divyaditya Singh Author

The much-awaited IPL 2025 is set to begin as the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the opening match of the season. The match will be played at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, March 22. Both the teams will be playing under a new leader this year, where Ajinkya Rahane will take charge for KKR while Rajat Patidar is set to lead RCB in the upcoming season.
KKR are the three-time IPL champions and will look to begin their title defense with a win against RCB. On the other hand, RCB will look to come up with different strategies and improve their win percentage against KKR and start their IPL 2025 campaign with a win. Let’s have a look at today’s cricket match prediction, pitch report, head-to-head and key players ahead of the first match of IPL 2025 between Kolkata and Bengaluru.
Match
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Match 1
Venue
Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Date & Time
Saturday, March 22, 7:30 PM (IST)
Live Broadcast & Streaming Details
JioHotstar (app and website) and Star Sports Network
The surface of the Eden Gardens is mostly flat and provides perfect bounce. This means that the batters will enjoy their time on the pitch in a tournament like the IPL and a big score is expected. However, as the match progresses, the pitch becomes slow which turns out to be beneficial for the spinners. Out of 93 IPL matches played at this ground, the team batting first won 38 times while the chasing team came out victorious on 55 occasions.
Kolkata Knight Riders have a dominant record against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL over the years. Out of 34 matches played between KKR and RCB in the IPL, KKR have won 20 times while RCB have defeated them on 14 occasions. Both teams first met in the inaugural match of the IPL in 2008 where KKR defeated RCB by 140 runs. The latest encounter between both teams took place in IPL 2024 where KKR again won by just 1 run.
Total Matches played
34
KKR won
20
RCB won
14
Rain is expected in the afternoon of March 22 before the match between KKR and RCB. As per the weather forcast, 65% rain is expected in the afternoon. However, the weather is expected to be clear during the match hours with 74% humidity.

Quinton de Kock (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Manish Pandey, and Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Anrich Nortje, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, and Vaibhav Arora.
Impact Player: Mayank Markhande
Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal.
Impact player: Suyash Sharma or Devdutt Padikkal
KKR: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Anrich Nortje, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Spencer Johnson, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy, Moeen Ali, Chetan Sakariya
RCB: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethel, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee

Sunil Narine: All-rounder Sunil Narine had a great season with both bat and ball in IPL 2024. He also has a great record against RCB and will look to tackle their batters with their spin. Apart from that, he could also turn out to be a dangerous batter and give a fiery start to KKR.
Andre Russell: Andre Russell loves to play against RCB and has great records against them with the bat. Russell can change the momentum of the match with his fiery batting in the last few overs of the innings and RCB will look to get rid of him at the earliest.
Virat Kohli: Star batter Virat Kohli will be one of the players to look out for RCB in the first match against KKR. Kohli has good records against KKR and will look at play another big knock against them on March 22.
Josh Hazlewood: Josh Hazlewood is back with RCB squad and will look to start his campaign with a match-winning performance. He will play a crucial role in the starting overs of the match where KKR openers will look to attack.

Toss Prediction: KKR to win the toss
Scenario 1: KKR opt to bowl first
1st innings prediction: RCB to post 185-195 in their 20 overs.
Match Prediction: KKR to win
Scenario 2: KKR opt to bat first
1st innings prediction: KKR to post 170-180 in their 20 overs
Match prediction: RCB to win

KKR vs RCB Match Prediction: Who will win today’s 1st Match of Indian Premier League between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru?
CODM China Masters 2025 Season 9: S8UL, Godlike to represent India
BCCI to host all ten IPL franchise captains on March 20 ahead of season opener: Reports
WATCH: MS Dhoni brings up his trademark helicopter shot; hits M Pathirana for a six in CSK practice session

source