Salt & Karthik's insta banter winning hearts

• RCB wins IPL opener vs SRH, Virat Kohli scores 67.
• Debutants Duffy & Singh featured for RCB; Arora debuted for SRH.
• Phil Salt playfully criticised coach Kartik’s Instagram post.

The streets of Bengaluru turned red once again as the Men in Red kept their winning streak going. RCB wins the IPL opener match against SRH as their star boy Virat Kohli scores a 38-ball 67, leading the team

to the victory of winning it by 6 wickets. In the first innings, despite losing early wickets, the team managed to put a defendable score of 201 against RCB

The RCB vs SRH match had some amazing debuts in the form of the bowler Jacob Duffy and Abhinandan Singh from RCB; meanwhile, Salil Arora, a 22- year old youngster from Punjab, made his SRH debut yesterday.

RCB won the match comfortably against Ishan Kishan’s army in only 17 overs, getting to a good NRR start. However, the fans didn’t know they were in for some more dressing room fun in the form of banter between the English player, Phil Salt and the head coach Dinesh Kartik.

Following the match, Kartik posted on Instagram the praise-worthy moments of the team, but missed talking about Phil Salt’s controversial catch of the SRH player, Henrich Klassen. Kartik’s post read, “Perfect start 🏆🤞”.

Phil Salt replied to the post, “Nothing for the catch mastermind? Shame”.  

Phil Salt's comment on Dinesh Karthik's Instagram post for not having his catch's picture. 🤣❤️ pic.twitter.com/flvKkCHKpT

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 29, 2026

Phil Salt’s controversial catch in RCB’s debut match in 2026

Phil Salt took a controversial boundary catch to dismiss Henrich Klassen in the IPL 2026 opener between RCB and SRH. While stepping on the boundary, Salt caught the ball and appeared to touch the cushions with his foot. The third umpire ruled it a fair catch due to a lack of "conclusive evidence" that the rope was moved.

The controversy emerged when Romario Shepherd was bowling in the 14th over of the first innings, and Klassen, batting on 31 off 20 tried hitting Shepherd for a six. Salt caught the ball near the boundary, and his back foot was incredibly close to, or potentially touching, the boundary cushion. The on-field umpire referred it, and the third umpire concluded there was no definitive angle to overturn the on-field decision of "out".The SRH batter was visibly unhappy, leading to a long delay before he walked off.Debate: Many fans and pundits debated the decision online, arguing that the catch should have been deemed a six, with some calling the decision to stick with "out" as "harsh".