RR vs RCB: The Phil Salt factor in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s march in IPL 2025

“I think they won the game almost in the powerplay” – Sanju Samson, after Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Rajasthan Royals by nine wickets, with 15 balls to spare, in Match 28 of IPL 2025.

The win made it four out of four for RCB in ‘away’ games this season, while they have lost the two home games they’ve played. The Royals had put on a competitive 173 for 4 on a slowish Jaipur track, but thanks to Phil Salt, the chase almost became a stroll for RCB.

In the IPL 2025 mega auction, RCB had to beat back a fierce charge from KKR to snatch Phil Salt away from his old franchise, eventually shelling out ₹11.50 crore. Given his performances so far, and his potential, even that looks like a bargain.

How Salt killed the chase against Rajasthan

Salt would end with 65 off 33, easily the most significant innings of the match. But before that, he needed to survive against a man he knows very well: Jofra Archer.

The match began with Archer steaming in to Salt. He had packed his legside, and was bowling at searing pace while getting the ball to bend into Salt. There was a four that counted as runs although it went off thigh pad, having cut Salt in half first ball.

There was a top-edged six over fine-leg, which was the area Salt was targeting because he had moved far across his stumps, realising that runs weren’t there to be had on the off-side. And there was a mighty close shout for lbw off the final ball that was denied. Salt’s movement to the offside yielded that bonus – he was getting far enough across that the impact was marginally out of line. The root of it was Salt’s intent.

“I gave it a chance early doors to try and hit through the offside, but he was swinging it quite a long way so I realised there’s only one area of the ground I can try and hit the ball,” Salt would say after the match. “Me and Jof (Jofra) have a lot of battles in the nets. He’s bowled at me more than he’s bowled at anyone else and I’ve faced him more than I’ve faced anyone else.”

Given the Royals’ not-too-steep score, it would have been easy to take a ‘safety first’ approach against Archer. If he had done that though, it was likely that Salt would have lost his wicket in that first over. It was because he was still looking to score, not just runs but boundaries, that he was getting into the positions he did.

And by getting into those positions, he avoided the lbw, while also collecting runs. In fact, Salt wasn’t in full control of any of the balls in that first over. His intent still fetched him 10 runs.

Salt’s impact for RCB

As Mo Bobat, RCB’s director of cricket, put it – Salt did what he does. “You almost want your openers to go out and just do what they do. And when you talk about doing what you do, Phil Salt was a good example of that,” Bobat said after the match. “I always have a preference, with (chasing) slightly lower scores, that we start with an intent to go after the score. Phil Salt did a great job of breaking the back of that total, which then took the pressure off everybody else.”

So far in IPL 2025, Salt has 208 runs in six inning for RCB. The key is, those runs have come from just 112 balls, a strike rate of 185.71. Put another way, if Salt faced all 20 overs of an innings and batted at this rate of scoring and dismissal, he would score about 223 for 7 off just his bat, without extras.

In RCB’s previous game, at home against Delhi Capitals, Salt was batting on 37 off 17 when he was run out in a mix-up with Virat Kohli. It’s fair to say, RCB might have had five wins from their six games if Salt’s innings had continued on its natural course then.

He showed just how much of a difference he could make against the Royals, on a tougher pitch. The good news for RCB is, he seems to have just got started in IPL 2025.