No Sunil Narine? No problem so far for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
New KKR recruit Moeen Ali dovetailed beautifully with old face Varun Chakravarthy on a dry, sluggish Guwahati surface to keep Rajasthan Royals (RR) to 151 for 9. The two spinners were so good - they claimed combined figures of 8-0-40-4 - that KKR didn't even need Andre Russell with the ball.
The slide that the spinners started - RR went from 67 for 1 to 82 for 5 - messed with the plans of the hosts. RR had originally not named Shubham Dubey among their Impact subs, but they had to slot him in at No.7, at the expense of a frontline bowler who could have been used during their defence.
Dubey, however, laboured to 9 off 12 balls before Vaibhav Arora had him holing out. Arora had caused damage with the new ball too, knocking Sanju Samson over for 13 off 11 balls after he had stepped out a bit too early. Yashasvi Jasiwal also fell while stepping out, with Moeen having him hole out to long-on for 29 off 24 balls.
Local boy Riyan Parag got cracking with three sixes, including a one-handed hit, but Varun cut his innings short with a 113kph dart. RR promoted Wanindu Hasaranga up to No. 5 to counter Moeen but that experiment didn't come off. He faced just one ball from the offspinner and fell to the mystery spinner for a run-a-ball 4.
Dhruv Jurel top-scored for RR with 33 off 28 balls before Rana got rid of him and Hetmyer in the penultimate over. Jofra Archer's cameo - 16 off seven balls - pushed RR past 150. He will have a big job to do with the ball for RR, especially after having bowled the most expensive IPL spell ever in his last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on the weekend.