Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders were knocked out of the Indian Premier League 2025 after a washout in Bengaluru on Saturday, May 17. KKR, who have been subpar this season, needed to win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru to remain alive in the competition. However, it was not to be, as the rain refused to die down at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
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The match was called off at 10:25 PM, after a long wait, in the hopes that a 5-over contest would be possible in Bengaluru. But as the rain refused to go away, the match officials did not wish to take the risk of making the players compete on a wet outfield. The washout meant that RCB climbed to the top spot in the points table on the restart of the Indian Premier League, with 17 points from 12 matches.
With the tie, RCB have one foot into the IPL playoffs, given they need just one more point to qualify for the final four from their last two league stage games. They would have however, liked to play this game given they drubbed KKR in the first match of this season away from home. Even a 5-over match could have brought the RCB players back to the pace with the game, but as it turned out, they would now have to wait for their next game against SunRisers Hyderabad on May 23, which is still a week away.
RCB Fans’ Tribute
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Royal Challengers Bengaluru fans had planned a lovely tribute to Virat Kohli in the KKR game, wearing his Test jersey to the stadium. This sparked some tensions about the visibility of the white ball in the RCB camp, but at least for today that problem has subsided. RCB’s next match against SRH is once again at the M Chinnaswamy Staduim in Bengaluru, and if that match remains unaffected by rain, and fans do turn up in the Test whites once again, that problem will turn up once again in the next week.
Despite the match being a washout nearly four hours after the toss time, the RCB fans remained jovial for the major part of it. They let out loud cheers whenever they saw Virat Kohli on the big screen, or whenever his Test numbers were shown on the board.
Kohli, who retired from the Test format on May 12, would be raring to go in the IPL, given the burden of national duties is off his shoulders. Kohli has not publicly spoken yet about his retirement and the effects of it on his mental health, but the RCB camp has sworn that he is only focusing on the IPL at the moment and remains as professional as ever in terms of his conduct in the dressing room.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
