De Kock blitzkrieg knock propels Kolkata to first win of the season

In the chase, De Kock got going from the word go and stayed till the end while hitting eight fours and six sixes at a strike rate of 159.02 to ace a comfortable chase for KKR with 15 balls remaining.

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Moeen Ali, coming in place of an unwell Sunil Narine, and Varun Chakaravarthy combined to pick four wickets each while Quinton de Kock was at his attacking best to hit an unbeaten 97 off 61 balls as defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders sealed their first win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 with an emphatic eight-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

Ali picked 2-23, while Chakravarthy bounced back to take 2-17 as KKR restricted Rajasthan Royals (RR) to 151/9. Such was the brilliance of Moeen and Chakaravarthy that KKR didn't even need Andre Russell's services with the ball, as RR went from 67/1 to 82/5.

It didn't help RR that their top order fell to rash shot selection. It took Dhruv Jurel's 33 off 28 balls and Jofra Archer's cameo of 16 to take RR past 150. In the chase, de Kock got going from the word go and stayed till the end while hitting eight fours and six sixes at a strike rate of 159.02 to ace a comfortable chase for KKR with 15 balls remaining.