No Sunil Narine, no problem for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). KKR’s new recruit Moeen Ali, who took the unwell Narine’s place, dovetailed beautifully with old face Varun Chakravarthy on a dry, sluggish Guwahati surface to limit Rajasthan Royals (RR) to 151 for 9. The two spinners were so good – they claimed combined figures of 8-0-40-4 – that KKR didn’t even need Andre Russell with the ball.

Then another new recruit, Quinton de Kock came good at the top, and KKR didn’t need Russell with the ball either. De Kock’s unbeaten 97 off 61 balls got KKR on the points table and handed RR their second successive defeat this season.

Sanju Samson fell for 13 off 11 balls when he stepped out a bit too early and yorked himself against Vaibhav Arora, but Guwahati’s very own Riyan Parag, who was captaining RR, brought the crowd alive when he crashed the third ball he faced, from Harshit Rana, for a one-handed six. His next six, a lofted checked-drive off Arora over his head in the last over of the powerplay, was even better.

Parag even launched Varun for a six over midwicket when the mystery spinner erred too short. However, Varun remedied his length two balls later, having Parag sky a catch to de Kock, the keeper, with a 113kph dart that veered away from him.

Parag also did his bit with the ball later in the evening, coming away with 4-0-25-0 later and running Moeen out, but his homecoming wasn’t a happy one.

Moeen might not even played had Narine been available. After having received his maiden KKR cap from team mentor Dwayne Bravo, Moeen struck in his second over when he had an advancing Jaiswal holing out to long-on for 29 off 24 balls. It was only Jaiswal’s second dismissal against spin in the IPL since 2023 across 197 balls while scoring 289 runs.

RR tried to use Hasaranga the way they did R Ashwin in the past. They promoted Hasaranga up to No. 5 as a pinch-blocker or pinch-hitter, but the experiment didn’t work. He faced just one ball from Moeen, the offspinner, and ended up miscuing Varun to mid-off for a run-a-ball 4.

The slide triggered by the spinners – RR went from 67 for 1 to 82 for 5 – messed with the hosts’ plans. Shubham Dubey, who wasn’t originally in RR’s bat-first XI, had to brought in at No. 7, which denied them the option of bringing in a frontline bowler in the form of Kumar Kartikeya or Akash Madhwal during their defence.

Varun and Moeen conceded just one six and a four between them. In contrast, RR’s spinners, including part-timers Parag and Nitish Rana, leaked 11 boundaries among them.

That RR crossed 150 was down to late blows from Dhruv Jurel, who top-scored for them with 33 off 28 balls, and Jofra Archer.

Moeen was going nowhere with the bat in the chase. He was on five off 11 balls, having been discomfited by Archer’s high pace and bounce. Then, when he tried to steal a double off Parag, he had a mix-up with de Kock and was run out for five off 12.

This might have been a match-losing innings on another day, but on this day Moeen’s own effort with the ball earlier and de Kock’s big hits at the other end meant KKR could offset it. The dew that set in later in the evening made KKR’s job much easier.

De Kock had attacked the hard, new ball, claiming 34 of the 40 runs KKR scored in the powerplay. After bashing Archer for a brace of boundaries in the third over, he went after Maheesh Theekshana and Parag.

When Hasaranga, who was picked in place of Fazalhaq Farooqi, removed Rahane for 18 off 15 balls, RR might have felt that they had an opening. But de Kock and 20-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi slammed the doors on them with an unbroken 83-run partnership off 44 balls.

De Kock brought up his half-century off 36 balls when he hoicked Hasaranga for six over wide long-on. He then celebrated the landmark with a six of Parag in the following over. De Kock could’ve ticked off a century had RR set KKR a bigger target.

RR’s 151 for 9, the lowest total this season, stuck out like a sore thumb amid the big hitting from various other teams in this IPL.

Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 153 for 2 in 17.3 overs (Quinton de Kock 97*, Ajinkya Rahane 18, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 22*; Wanidu Hasaranga 1-34, ) beat Rajasthan Royals 151 for 9  in 20 oves (Yashasvi Jaiswal 29, Sanju Samson 13, Riyan Parag 25, Dhruv Jurel 33, Joffra Archer 16; Spencer Johnson 1-42, Vaibhav Arora 2-33, Harshit Rana 2-36,  Varun Chakravarthi 2-17, Moeen Ali  2-23) by eight wickets

[Cricinfo]