The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) secured a dominating win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday (April 11) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. The defending champions beat the five-team champions by eight wickets and with ten overs to spare.

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KKR's right-arm off-spinner Moeen Ali hailed Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy after their phenomenal performance. Sunil Narine was the pick of the bowlers for KKR as he picked three wickets and gave just 13 runs in his allotted four overs. He shined with the bat, too, where he made a quickfire 44 runs from just 18 balls. His innings included five sixes and two boundaries.

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The 36-year-old was awarded the Player of the Match following his all-round performance. On the other hand, India's mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy scalped two wickets in his four overs, giving away 22 runs. He took important wickets of Vijay Shankar and Deepak Hooda in his spell.

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'Varun and Sunil are just amazing'

"It was nice, and having two left-handers helped my case. Just trying to keep it as tight as I can and pick up a couple of wickets. I picked up one wicket. It is nice, and Rinku's dive for me to stop that four was big boost for my confidence. Try not to bowl too quickly; just give time to spin, and sometimes it skids, sometimes it spins. I like to keep the shape of the ball and try to spin it."

"They (Narine and Varun) are amazing spinners, and they have been for a while now, especially Sunil. If I can bowl a couple of overs up top and set them up in the middle where they are quite hard to hit, I am learning from them and trying to keep up. The pitch was a little bit tacky; you don't need to spin every ball, just one to put the doubt in the batter's mind," Moeen said during the post-match presentation.

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Moeen Ali had a good day out with the ball, where he grabbed one wicket in his spell of four overs, where he gave away 20 runs at an economy of 5. He bowled one maiden over and took the wickets of Devon Conway in his spell. 

(With inputs from agencies)