Guwahati, Mar 26: Playing his first IPL game for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Moeen Ali stood up in Sunil Narine’s absence to pick 2-23, while Varun Chakravarthy bounced back to take 2-17 as the defending champions restricted Rajasthan Royals (RR) to 151/9 in match six of IPL 2025 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

Such was the brilliance of Narine and Chakaravarthy that KKR didn't even need Andre Russell’s services with the ball, as RR went from 67/1 to 82/5. It also didn’t help RR that their top-order fell to rash shot selection. It took Dhruv Jurel’s 33 off 28 balls and Jofra Archer’s cameo of 16 to take RR past 150.

Pushed into batting first, Jaiswal and Sanju Samson got off the mark with a boundary each in the opening over. With Spencer Johnson and Vaibhav Arora finding some swing, Samson struggled, while Jaiswal unveiled a straight drive and hook off the former to pick a four and six respectively.

In a bid to loft Arora through the off-side, Samson stepped down the pitch, but was left to seeing the yorker uprooting his leg stump, as he fell for 13. RR continued to play attacking cricket as local lad Riyan Parag wowed everyone with his heave and straight loft shots fetching him two sixes, while Jaiswal lofted Arora over long-off for a maximum, as RR ended power-play at 54/1.

After Parag smashed Chakaravarthy for a six over mid-wicket, the spinner had the last laugh as a ball later, he got the RR skipper to miscue a loft and was caught by Quinton de Kock for 25. From there, RR’s slide began - Jaiswal holed out to long-on against Moeen Ali, Wanindu Hasaranga, promoted to number five, spooned one to mid-off against Chakaravarthy and Nitish Rana was bamboozled by turn and grip, as Moeen hit the top of his middle stump.

Jurel began resurrecting RR’s innings by pulling Moeen for four, before steering and edging off Harshit Rana twice for fours, despite losing impact player Shubham Dubey to Arora. Jurel’s fightback continued as he scooped and sweetly drove Rana for a brace of fours, before inside-edging onto his stumps off the pacer and walk back for 33.

With Shimron Hetmyer holing out to long-on off Rana, the twin blows in the 19th over deprived RR of the finishing flourish they were desperately seeking. It took twin sixes from Jofra Archer’s bat while making a seven-ball 16 to help RR cross 150-mark.

Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 151/9 in 20 overs (Dhruv Jurel 33, Yashasvi Jaiswal 29; Varun Chakaravarthy 2-17, Moeen Ali 2-23) against Kolkata Knight Riders

(IANS)

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