With Sunil Narine ruled out due to illness, Kolkata Knight Riders needed someone to fill in the big shoes of Narine. Moeen Ali was entrusted with the big responsibility and he delivered in style. On his KKR debut, Moeen Ali bowled a crucial spell of 2/23 in his 4 overs, helping to stifle down Rajasthan Royals to 151/9.

Moeen Ali and Varun Chakravarthy bowled in tandem to choke RR in the first innings.

"I came on before him [Varun], so my job was to try to bowl as tight as I can. And then maybe he can build a bit of pressure as well or get the wicket," Moeen said in the post-match press conference. "I'm used to bowling with somebody who is better than me and has more mystery than me, so my job there is to bowl as tight as I can and hopefully that builds pressure for that person to then get wickets.

"Retired from international cricket, yeah, but I still play a lot of leagues, and I still try to stay on top of my game because I still want to play for as long as I can and do well."

Moeen Ali dismissed the dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal. However it was the dismissal of Nitish Rana that truly showed his class as on off spinner.

"That ball was a nice ball," Moeen said. "I knew there was a bit of pressure being built and I just tried to bowl a good area, spin the ball as hard as I can. I don't have the skill as other bowlers, but my job is to contain as much as I can. I think my skill is that I think like a batter. So a lot of the time I'm trying to think what they think and it works in my favour."

"I've been practising well, and I just try to be ready all the time," Moeen said. "I got told this morning that Sunny [Narine] was not well and to just be ready whenever. Obviously, hard to replace Sunny but I felt like I did a nice job of it.

"You're just waiting for your turn and when the chance comes, you try and take it as much as you can. But on some wickets like today, I probably used my experience as much as I could to actually keep it simple, keep the stumps in play, keep the line to the left-handers in particular quite straight and just try and spin the ball."
"When the wicket is like this, you're not going to get 300," he said. "You probably won't even get 200, and it's great to have these games in between those big games.

"It's just learning and trying to get better even at 37 years old," he said. "It's a very, very balanced side. The overseas players are amazing, with Sunny and Russ [Andre Russell]. Quinny [Qunton de Kock] is always guaranteed to play and it's very difficult to get in, but it is how it is in good teams."