Kolkata, March 23 -- 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...