Kolkata Knight Riders opened their account in IPL 2025 with a win against Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.
Having lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the tournament opener, KKR Skipper Ajinkya Rahane read the track perfectly and his bowlers led by spinners Varun Chakravarthy (2/17 in 4 overs) and Moeen Ali (2/23 in 4 overs) made full use of the conditions to restrict the Royals to 151 for 9.
In contrast, none of the Rajasthan bowlers created any noteworthy performance.
How the bowlers fared in Guwahati...
Vaibhav Arora
The medium pacer came on to bowl the second over and bowled some good balls coming in to Sanju Samson. He nearly had his man when Samson miscued a lofted shot.
In his next over, he started with a poor ball and was duly smacked for a four by Samson.
Arora kept his deliveries at yorker level and full lengths. He persisted with the full length and got the first breakthrough. Full ball angling in, Samson came down the track to smash it, did not make contact and his stumps went cartwheeling.
Arora persisted with the full balls and got smacked for two maximums in his following over. Rahane brought him back in the 15th and he struck to have Impact Sub Shubham Dubey out cheaply.
Varun Chakravarthy
The pitch was a wee bit helpful for tweakers with its sticky nature, The mystery spinner was introduced in the 8th over and like always he heeded his captain's call with an early wicket.
Riyan Parag smashed him for a six off the third ball of the over and a dot later, Chakravarthy got his revenge.
A length ball outside off, Parag went for the big one, only to miscue and was nicely caught by Quinton de Kock.
He kept it tight in his next over and the pressure told on Wanindu Hasaranga who got a life when he went for the reverse sweep only to be put down at short fine by Harshit Rana.
Next ball, Hasaranga went for the pull off a ball that skidded off the pitch, mistimed it and was caught at extra cover.
Chakravarthy kept a noose around the scoring as he gave the batters no room to play freely. He gave just 4 runs off his next two overs to apply pressure on the Rajasthan batters and finished with 2 for 17.
Moeen Ali
Moeen replaced Sunil Narine in the KKR XI after the KKR veteran was ruled out due to illness.
And what an impressive debut. He kept his deliveries tight and gave five singles in his first over.
He kept his deliveries full and thereabouts. He got his first wicket in KKR colours, removing Yashasvi Jaiswal who was beginning to settle down.
Jaiswal came down the track and miscued, the ball flew and fell into the hands of long on.
Moeen got another wicket when Nitish Rana chopped the ball onto his stumps. Moeen, who had figures of 2 for 23, gave runs runs mostly in singles and conceded only one boundary in the 13th over off the blade of Dhruv Jurel. He bowled like a miser and made life hard for RR batters.
Harshit Rana
The bowler was clobbered for a streak of boundaries and sixes. Even though he was smashed for 29 runs in 3 overs, he was brought back at the backend and he delivered and how!
He first took out the in form Dhruv Jurel and in the same over he took out Shimron Hetmyer. Both wickets came in the 19th over, ensuring Rajasthan's total would hover around the 150-run mark.
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