The bowlers did the job first up after captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and decided to bowl, considering the dew factor at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday.

Thereafter, Quinton de Kock produced a masterful innings of 97 not out as Kolkata Knight Riders cruised to a convincing eight-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals at the latter’s second home.

If the hammering from Royal Challengers Bengaluru batters in the tournament opener on Saturday wasn’t bad enough, the Knights were without premier spinner Sunil Narine on Wednesday as he was indisposed. However, England spinner all-rounder Moeen Ali (2/23), coming in for Narine, combined well with Varun Chakravarthy (2/17) to restrict the Royals to a modest 151/9. Moeen couldn’t contribute much with the bat though.

Superb strokeplay

De Kock churned out his A-game, making sure the chase didn’t get tricky for the Knights on a surface where the ball did grip a little bit off the surface.

Kolkata Knight Riders' Moeen Ali celebrates with Ajinkya Rahane after taking the wicket of Rajasthan Royals' Yashasvi Jaiswal, caught out by Harshit Rana. Reuters

Right through his 61-ball innings, which comprised eight fours and six maximums, the South African keeper-batter was diligent in terms of his strokeplay. He quickly picked up the lengths of the Royals spinners before finishing it off with a boundary and a couple of sixes off Jofra Archer.

At the other end, Impact Player Angkrish Raghuvanshi (22 not out) remained steady and didn’t do anything silly, which enabled De Kock to play his game. At present, there’s still no clarity on De Kock’s T20I future, but if he carries on in this fashion, it won’t be surprising if he’s seen donning the Proteas colours again in the shortest format.

Tweakers on target

Despite losing Sanju Samson off pacer Vaibhav Arora for not many runs and his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal unable to maintain a solid strike-rate, captain Riyan Parag ensured the Royals scored at around nine an over. Riyan even greeted Varun with a six in his first over.

But off the very next ball, Varun had his revenge when Riyan skied one up as it straightened a little after pitching, with De Kock doing well to take the catch. In the next over, Moeen forced a mishit from the struggling Jaiswal, who perished inthe deep.

Kolkata Knight Riders' Varun Chakravarthy celebrates with Venkatesh Iyer after taking the wicket of Rajasthan Royals' Wanindu Hasaranga, caught out by Ajinkya Rahane Reuters

The Knights then were right on top when Varun extracted a bit of top-spin to induce a false shot from Wanindu Hasaranga (replacing Fazalhaq Farooqi) before Moeen cleaned up a clueless Nitish Rana, a former Knight.

From 67/1 in the eighth over, the Royals had slumped to 82/5 after 11 overs.

Both Varun and Moeen did cash in on a tricky pitch. Quicks Vaibhav (2/33) and Harshit Rana (2/36) also effected timely strikes, particularly the latter with his scalps of the in-form Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer in the slog overs.

At the end of the day, Varun and Moeen have to take a bulk of the credit for exercising control in those middle overs.