IPL 2025: Moeen Ali and Varun Chakravarthy Weave their Spin against Rajasthan Royals
The men in purple from Kolkata Knight Riders lost their season 18 opener against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in an abysmal manner.
But they bounced back in style, with a facile win over the Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati. What was pleasing to see in the defending champions’ squad was the way veteran all-rounder Moeen Ali stepped up in his KKR debut game.
The seasoned Englishman was a last-minute inclusion, managed to collect the big wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Nitish Rana under his belt. Reflecting on his performance, Moeen felt that sticking to basics actually paved the way for delivering an applauding performance.
Another magician who came and did wonders was the mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy. He worked in perfect tandem with Ali to weave some magic and thanks to their combined efforts, KKR could restrict Rajasthan Royals to a below par score of 151 runs.
This new spin partnership brought together due to Sunil Narine’s injury quite convincingly proved to be their game-changer. They dismantled the opposing middle order, picking up two wickets each in successive overs right after the powerplay, shifting the momentum in KKR’s favor.
Chakravarthy, varying his pace masterfully, bowled out his quota with exceptional figures of 2/17, while Moeen Ali finished with a tidy 2/23 from his four overs.
Riyan, leading the Royals for the first time at his home ground, began with intent, smashing Harshit Rana for a six over square leg off just the third ball he faced.
Riyan, who knows the Barsapara pitch like the back of his hand and is the interim captain of the men in pink, unfortunately could not capitalize on his strengths and guide his team over the finish line.
Varun Chakravarthy triggered the collapse in the seventh over, dismissing the dangerous-looking Parag with a well-disguised delivery. Ali compounded RR’s troubles in the very next over by dismissing Jaiswal, who had looked in fine touch with two sixes and as many boundaries.
“I’m used to bowling with someone who is better than me and has more mystery than me. My job is to bowl as tight as I can and hopefully that builds pressure for that person to then get wickets”, expressed Moeen in the post-match presentation.
It was a game where everything fell into place for KKR right from the toss which proved crucial. The teamwork between Varun and Moeen, with added cameos of pacers and star batsman Quinton de Kock was amazing and showed the importance of getting off the mark to secure two points for the side. IPL is a cricket festival indeed.
