Memorable Recent Match 1 IPL Performances

Updated At: 2025/03/20

The chatter stops and the streets go quiet for half a second. It can only mean one thing - the Indian Premier League is back! The 18th edition of the world's biggest festival of cricket begins on Saturday 22 March as Kolkata Knight Riders take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens.

Fresh from winning the 2024 IPL, KKR will be keen to get off to a winning start, but standing in their way will be Virat Kohli and the rest of RCB. Famously, the visitors have never won an IPL, but a victory in Kolkata would send out a message to the rest of the cricketing world that this could be their year!

We take a look back at some recent opening games of the IPL and see if they gave us any clues or indications of what lay ahead.

2024 IPL, Match 1

This will be the second season in a row that RCB have got the IPL underway after they lost by six wickets at the M.A Chidambaram Stadium to 2023 winners CSK on 22 March 2024.

Virat Kohli

As ever, milestones were marked during the fixture as Virat Kohli became the first Indian to reach 12,000 runs in T20 cricket and the first player of any nationality to hit 1,000 runs against CSK in the IPL.

Kohli would go on to win the Orange Cap in that edition of the competition with 741 runs at an average of 61.75 but there was little evidence that it was on the cards when he was dismissed by Mustafizur Rahman for a 20-ball 21.

Runs	Player	Team
741	Virat Kohli	RCB
583	Ruturaj Gaikwad	CSK
573	Riyan Parag	Rajasthan Royals
567	Travis Head	Sunrisers Hyderabad
531	Sanju Samson	Rajasthan Royals

Mustafizur Rahman

Talking of the left-arm Bangladesh pace bowler, he took the Player of the Match award with 4/29 which included his 50th wicket in the IPL. This performance gave him the springboard to take 14 wickets in the tournament, his t second-best IPL return, but with a new personal-best campaign strike-rate of 14.7.

2023 IPL, Match 1

It was the Narendra Modi Stadium which hosted the curtain-raiser in 2023 with CSK travelling to Ahmedabad where they were beaten by five wickets by the reigning champions Gujarat Titans.

Little did we know that these would also be the teams who would contest the final two months later, back at the same venue, with CSK securing thei fifth IPL title!

Despite ending the tournament as runners-up, Shubman Gill would win the Orange Cap with Mohammed Shami taking the Purple Cap and they both stood out for Gujarat Titans in Match 1. Gill top scored for the franchise with 63 runs from 36 balls but it was Rashid Khan who had returned the best figures for his side of 2/26 in the first innings.

Shubman Gill

Still only 25 years old, this will be Gill's eighth IPL campaign! Although he was unable to match the heights of 2023 in 2024, he was still able to hit 400+ runs for a fifth consecutive campaign and he is one of the favourites for the Orange Cap ahead of this season.

Year	Runs Scored
2024	426
2023	890
2022	483
2021	478
2020/21	440
2019	296
2018	203

2025 IPL, Match 1

It is almost time for the opening game of this year. Whoever top scores or picks up the most wickets is not a shoe-in for the Orange or Purple Cap but a big performance can go a long way to establishing themselves in the competition.

Likewise for the teams, a defeat in Match 1 is not the end of the world, as shown particularly by CSK when they lost to Gujarat Titans in 2023 but then bounced back to beat them in the final just over 60 days later!