(ESPNCRICINFO) – Two markedly different philosophies went head-to-head in Jaipur’s first game of IPL 2025. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have built their team to attack from ball one. They have batting depth down to No. 8. Rajasthan Royals (RR) keep going into their games with not enough firepower. They had Wanindu Hasaranga at No. 7. It might not be coincidence that even though it was one of their players that put on a clinic – Yashasvi Jaiswal making 75 of his team’s 173 – the opposition ended up winning.
Salt smash

It isn’t just that RCB have options all the way down their line-up. They are happy to maximise it with Phil Salt (65) going out there and thinking about only one thing. How to hit boundaries. He got 11 in 32 balls and fell looking for a 12th. This is the way he always plays. This is why he gets paid. He is phenomenal.

At the start of the game, Salt said he had a plan for Jofra Archer. These two have never played against each other but have spent enough time in the same dressing room, going back to their teenage years in Barbados.
When they went head-to-head, it became clear what Salt wanted to do. Get across his crease and open up the leg side leg side. Two sixes and a four came this way.
There were other factors at play as well. Salt was conscious of targeting the smaller boundary. It was on the leg side for Archer. It shifted to the off side for Sandeep Sharma, which was why when he came down the track, he made room as well to hit over mid-off. Salt’s power and willingness to put a low price on his wicket is often talked about. Here he was being clever as well.

Neither team lost a wicket in the first six overs but where RCB scored 65 runs, RR could only manage 45, this season’s second-lowest powerplay score for no loss. That 20-run difference proved decisive in the end.
Jaiswal’s class

Jaiswal was able to score quickly (SR 160) on a slow pitch because he has shots all around the wicket and doesn’t always look for the right ball to play them. His first boundary was a prime example, when he turned a back of a length delivery into something else by charging at Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He made good of his match-up against spin – he averages 169.5 against it since IPL 2023 with a strike rate of 148 – because he was willing to indulge reverse sweeps and the lap sweeps.

Just before he was dismissed, Jaiswal played the shot of the day, a scoop off Josh Hazlewood even though the bowler went wide of off stump to deny the leg side to him. The RR opener finished with 75 off 47 with 10 fours and two sixes. His partners at the other end made 47 off 49 balls with four fours and one six.