Quinton de Kock (97) and brilliant spin bowling from Varun Chakaravarthy and Moeen Ali helped KKR beat Rajasthan Royals by 8 wickets to register their first win in IPL 2025
Jaiswal makes a cautious start
Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and decided to bowl first Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson came to bat first for Rajasthan Royals The two started out slow and cautious Both added 33 runs for the first wicket. In the fourth over, Vaibhav Varanasi gave the first blow to Rajasthan by dismissing Sanju Samson(13).
At 3, captain Riyan Parag came to bat. He and Jaiswal made a good partnership. Riyan was batting with a lot of intent. At the end of the power play, Rajasthan Royals scored 54 runs with the loss of one wicket.
The magical spin of KKR spinners
Riyan Parag faced just 15 balls and hit three sixes. He got out on a score of 25 runs. Riyan was sent to the pavilion by Varun Chakaravarthy after being caught by Quinton de Kock . In the very next over, Moeen Ali gave a big breakthrough to Kar by dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal. Jaiswal scored 29 in 24 balls with the help of 2 fours and 2 sixes.
Nitish Rana and Wanindu Hasaranga also could not do anything special. Hasaranga(4) dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy and Nitish Rana(8) were dismissed by Moeen Ali. Rajasthan lost its 5 wickets for just 82 runs After this, they used an impact player. In place of Sanju Samson, Shubham Dubey, who batted well in the last overs of the last match, came on the field.
He and Dhruv Jurel tried to handle Rajasthan’s innings and took the innings forward slowly. Both of them made a partnership of 28 runs in 24 balls. However, Shubham Dubey lacks intent in this match. He scored just 9 runs from 12 balls and was dismissed by Vaibhav Arora.
Bad strategy of Rajasthan Royals
Shimron Hetmyer, who scored 42 runs in the last match, was sent by Rajasthan Royals to bat at number eight in this match. This decision was a bit shocking and beyond comprehension. Because before him batsmen like Shubham Dubey and Wanindu Hasaranga were sent to bat. However, Shimron Hetmyer was also out after scoring just 8 runs.
Harshit Rana dismissed Dhruv Jurel and ended Rajasthan’s remaining hopes of reaching a big score. Jofra Archer hit two sixes in the end to help Rajasthan reach the score of 150. Rajasthan scored 151 runs at the loss of 9 wickets at the end of 20 overs.
For KKR, Varun Chakaravarthy took 2 wickets for 17 runs in four overs. Moeen Ali took two wickets by conceding 23 runs in four overs. Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana also got two wickets each while Spencer Johnson took one wicket.
Strong start for KKR by Quinton de Kock
Quinton de Kock and Moeen Ali came out to open the innings for KKR.
de Kock and Moeen Ali both were batting in different ways While De Kock was batting with great intent, Moeen Ali was batting very slowly. However, both of them did not give any chance to Rajasthan bowlers to take wickets.
KKR scored 40 runs without losing any wicket at the end of power play. Out of these 40 runs, 34 runs were scored by Quinton de Kock alone. This was the first time in IPL 2025 that a team scored less than 50 runs in the powerplay.
Tight bowling by Rajasthan
Moeen Ali throw his wicket in the form of run out on the very first ball as soon as the powerplay ended. He scored only 5 runs in 12 balls. Moeen Ali shared a 41-run partnership for the first wicket with Quinton de Kock. Ajinkya Rahane came to bat at number three. He also started batting carefully.
On the other hand, de Kock was continuously playing his shots. The spinners of Rajasthan Royals were constantly trying to put pressure on the batsmen. All the three spinners were not giving runs easily.
Kolkata Knight Riders scored only 70 runs in 10 overs. Wanindu Hasaranga gave Rajasthan Royals their second wicket by dismissing Ajinkya Rahane in the 11th over. He made 15 runs in 18 balls.
Quinton de Kock special show
Young batsman Angkrish Raghuvanshi came to bat after Ajinkya Rahane was out. He did a great by batted well at one end. Quinton de Kock completed his half-century in 36 balls by hitting a six in Hasaranga’s over. Angkrish Raghuvanshi and de Kock quickly brought KKR closer to the target. de Kock In the over of Jofra Archer who came to bowl 17 runs, he hit two sixes and a four to give India a win by 8 wickets.
Quinton de Kock played a great innings of 97* runs in just 61 balls He hit eight fours and six sixes in his innings. Raghuvanshi also remained not out till the end and scored 22* runs. There was a partnership of 83 runs between the two in 44 balls. Apart from Hasaranga, no bowler from Rajasthan got any wicket.
de Kock became Man of the Match for his brilliant innings.