KKR contained the RR batters well, never let them get ahead of the game: Moeen Ali

India Today

IPL 2025, RR vs KKR: In the post-match press conference, all-rounder Moeen Ali said that the Kolkata Knight Riders kept a check on the Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati, helping them win by eight wickets.

Transcript

00:00I thought we had an all-round great performance, great team win, so we bowled well.

00:06Everybody bowled well in their own field, but I thought for me it was, I wasn't so nervous because

00:13obviously I'm a bit older and I've made debuts for other teams and stuff, but it was just do a job.

00:17Sunil is a big miss for us and just stick to my strengths, try and spin the ball as much as I can

00:23and just contain.

00:32Definitely, I mean obviously we lost the first game and we probably didn't perform that well, but

00:37it's just nice to get a win within your first couple of games so you don't

00:41overthink things. But I thought today was a great team performance, everybody bowled really well

00:46against a good side and I just thought we contained really, really well and never

00:51really let them get ahead of the game, which then made our batting a little bit easier with

00:56someone like Quinny, playing the way he played was outstanding.

01:01It was a good wicket, I thought it was a good wicket. It had a bit for everything,

01:03a bit of swing, a bit of seam, obviously spun nicely, but not massive spin, just enough spin.

01:09Bit tacky, but it's a very nice ground to play. I played here in the England warm-up games and it

01:14was really nice and so yeah, it was nice that there was a bit of spin for us.

01:22How do you like bowling with Varun, because he's having a great run in international cricket

01:27and he bowled supermix. Did that help you?

01:33Yeah, I mean I came on before him so my job was to try and bowl tight as I can and then maybe he

01:39can build a bit of pressure as well or get the wicket. I'm used to bowling with somebody who's

01:45better than me and has more mystery than me, so my job there is to bowl as tight as I can and

01:49hopefully that builds pressure for that person to then get wickets. He's bowling outstandingly

01:56well as we know and he's a brilliant bowler. He's improved so much over the last two, three years,

02:02so yeah, it's amazing to bowl with somebody like that.

02:06How do you get back into the grind of a lot of travel, a lot of games and a lot of intensity?

02:28Retired from international cricket, yeah. I mean I still play a lot of

02:32leagues and I still try and stay on top of my game because I still want to play for as long

02:39as I can and do well. I'm doing other things as well, a bit of coaching and stuff, but yeah,

02:44I'm just really pleased. That ball was a nice ball. I just tried to spin it as hard as I could. I knew

02:48there was a bit of pressure being built and I just tried to bowl a good area, spin the ball as hard

02:53as I can. I don't have the skill as other bowlers, but my job is to contain as much as I can, not get

02:59hit for six over my head. If they hit good shots and it goes for sixes and fours, then I'm pleased

03:03with that. So yeah, just to make it hard and I think my skill is that I think like a batter,

03:09so a lot of the time I'm trying to think what they think and it works in my favour, yeah.

03:16There's been a lot of talk of the team scoring 300 in an NBL match and we have seen a lot of

03:23high-scoring matches. So do you think a match like this or a wicket like this

03:27will tend to make cricket a bit more balanced as far as bowling is concerned?

03:33Yeah, definitely. I mean, some of the wickets are amazing. India is a great place to bat actually

03:38and when the wicket's like this, you're not going to get 300. You probably won't even get 200.

03:43So it just brings in these kind of games and it's great to have these games in between those

03:46big games because those big scoring games are great to watch and you see, but it's a little

03:51bit of a false sense of security where you kind of, it's a bit too much. But the game is developing,

04:00cricket is getting quicker and faster and people are just fearless at the moment. So

04:05yeah, the bowlers do have to come up with something and planning and all that kind of

04:08stuff is more important, more than ever before.

04:11Last question.

04:20Yeah, it's amazing to be part of KKR. I've been really pleased with

04:25how things have gone so far here. When you go to teams that have won the trophy,

04:30they know what they're doing. They've won it three times. I was lucky enough at Chennai,

04:33they also won it three times when I was there, when I first went there. So they know what they're

04:37doing. Everything's calm. You lose one game, it's okay. As long as you're playing and you stick

04:42to the process, it's really important. And when you play for champion teams or teams that have

04:47that champion mentality, they know what they're doing most of the time. Whereas teams that haven't

04:53won it, they're still searching for that sort of remedy on how they're going to go about things.

04:58So I'm really pleased that I'm playing for KKR and it's an honour to be representing the franchise.

05:08It's amazing. Again, he's an experienced player. He's been around.

05:15Against Joff, I couldn't put a bet on him, but he was just making it look like he was

05:20bowling quite slow. But he's fantastic, one of the best players in the world,

05:25has been over a long period of time. And again, experience comes into it,

05:28the quality he showed today, and hopefully he's going to score a lot more runs for us.

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