IPL 2025, RCB vs KKR Live Updates: Indian Premier League set to resume after short suspension amid Indo-Pak hostilities

RCB vs KKR IPL 2025 Live Updates, Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Kolkata Knight Riders: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Virat Kohli (R) and Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Ajinkya Rahane look on at the end of a match.

Form guides can be a little risky to look at given the stretch of time between these teams and the last time they played, but the levels of confidence are what might be most telling in this contest. RCB have developed into a truly fearsome and well-rounded team over the course of this IPL, with contributions throughout their team to spark them to four wins in a row. Their ambition will be to finish top two and give themselves two cracks at making the final: as a team on a roll and with a fairly kind fixture list ahead of them, you would back them to seal that deal.

Their opponents on the day are a dangerous but inconsistent Kolkata Knight Riders, who have had some impressive performances but matched them with equally timid ones. The defending champions are on 11 points with two games to play, meaning a defeat today will officially eliminate them. Qualification is tricky even if they win both their games — but Ajinkya Rahane’s team will want to do what they can do to put themselves in some sort of position to compete. The talent is there, but KKR haven’t been able to find the ability to play as a team like they did so brilliantly throughout last season. It’s last chance saloon, and now or never for the Knights.

Bangalore is expecting rain on Saturday evening, which might play spoilsport for any hopes of a full game after what has been a rainy and damp week in the Karnataka city. The emphasis in this game is on the RCB fans wanting to pay tribute to Virat Kohli following his retirement from Test cricket: the memo has been sent out to all attending fans to turn up in white jerseys and t-shirts, to commemorate a modern hero of the city who made this his second home. For their sakes, hopefully there is enough cricket to produce a result: a rain-out would be a literal damp squib after the excitement surrounding IPL 2025’s return.

If it does come down to the cricket, it’s difficult not to back RCB, even if they are set to miss Josh Hazlewood as he nurses a shoulder injury. This pitch does have plenty in it to keep the bowlers interested, which will mean that as always KKR’s spin twins of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy will be key to this battle. But RCB likely have too much batting quality and are just that little bit better across the board with their bowling: it’s difficult to see the hosts fail today, unless the break has leeched them of all the momentum they did so well to generate.