Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the first game of the IPL 2025 season, but a controversial "hit wicket" argument involving Sunil Narine caused a lot of discussion.

Rasikh Salam bowled the eighth over of KKR's innings. Narine tried to hit a shot but hit the stumps with his bat instead, which knocked the bails off.  The RCB fielders quickly appealed, but the umpires said he wasn't out.

MCC Law 35.1.2 to 35.1.4 says that a player is "hit wicket" only if they break the stumps while trying to run, right after playing a shot, or while trying to keep the ball from hitting the stumps.  Narine survived because he wasn't doing any of these things.

Narine scored 44 runs off of 25 balls, hitting five fours and three sixes. This was a very important performance, even though it caused some debate.  Together with Ajinkya Rahane, he helped KKR score 174 runs, which was a good score.

RCB, on the other hand, made the target easy.  The KKR bowlers were smashed by Virat Kohli and Phil Salt, who scored 80 runs in the powerplay.  Kohli was still unbeaten on 59 off 36 balls, and Salt hit 56 off 31 balls, giving RCB a win with 20 balls to spare.