Rajasthan Royals fell victim to the famed Kolkata Knight Riders spin demons in their first home match of the season, at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati, as the side's strong start of 33/0 after 3.5 overs quickly devolved into a horrid-looking 82/5 at the end of 11. Even though things played out rather according to expectations given Kolkata's usual prowess with the ball regardless of opposition, what made the state of affairs surprising was the fact that Sunil Narine was not even playing after being declared unwell at the game's start. However, little shock remained when his replacement Mooen Ali proved with aplomb he could be as lethal as the Windies legend on his day.

Moeen, handed his KKR cap by mentor Dwayne Bravo before the game after being bought in the auction for his base price of INR 2 crores, opened his tally in the ninth over by getting the crucial wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal who had egan to settle in at the crease. Yet, it was his second scalp that truly put the cricketing fraternity on notice. With southpaw Nitish Rana -- KKR skipper for the 2022 season when the team finished seventh -- up against him in the 10th over, Moeen drifted a length delivery on leg stump to lure his counterpart into creating some room. But just as Rana tried to open the face of his bat and glide it down third, the Kookaburra turned viciously off the deck to comprehensively beat the outside edge and rattle into the stumps to end a strugglesome eight-ball knock.

Twitterati was all praises of the Englishman for continuing to deliver even in the latter stages of his illustrious career.

What a delivery!

Superb

Back 2 Back

Saved

Fantastic

LOL

Aggressive 

On the role

Dominating

Lost one