A candid Moeen Ali, who temporarily but successfully filled the void of Sunil Narine during Kolkata Knight Riders' IPL match against Rajasthan Royals, says he is "used to bowling with someone who is better than me."
Part of a KKR attack that also has Varun Chakaravarthy in its ranks, Moeen worked well in tandem with the Indian mystery spinner and choked RR in the middle overs to restrict them to 151 for nine in their contest here on Wednesday.
"My job was to keep it tight, so that he can build the pressure and maybe get wickets. I'm used to bowling with someone who is better than me and has more mystery than me. My job is to bowl as tight as I can and hopefully that builds pressure for that person to then get wickets," Moeen said at the post-match press conference.
"Varun is bowling outstandingly well as we know and he is a brilliant bowler. He has improved so much over the last two-three years. It is amazing to bowl with somebody like that," he added.
While the 37-year-old Moeen rose to the challenge to return impressive figures of 2/23 from four overs, his younger spin colleague Chakaravarthy finished with 2/23 in his full quota of four overs.
RR enjoyed a fruitful Power Play, scoring 54 runs in the first six overs but the introduction of spin changed the complexion of their innings.
Moeen dismissed Yashasvi Jasiwal in his second over but his best moment of the game came when he sent back Nitish Rana with a classic off-spinner that turned away sharply from the left-handed batter to hit the middle stump.
"That ball was a nice one. I was just trying to spin it as much as I could. I knew that there was a bit of pressure being built and I just tried to bowl in a good area, spin it as much as I could.
"I don't have the skill as other bowlers but my job is to contain as much as I can, not get hit for six over my head. If they play good shots and hit me for fours and sixes, then I'm pleased with that. My skill is that I think like a batter, so I think what they think and it works in my favour."
Narine was unavailable for the match in Guwahati due to illness, forcing KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane to turn to the former England international hours before the game.
T20 is an unforgiving format and Moeen admitted that bowlers need to evolve to keep challenging the batters.
"India is a great place to bat. But on wickets like this, you aren't going to get 300, you probably aren't even going to get 200. It's great to have these games in between those (high scoring) games.
"Big scoring games are great to see but it also gives a false sense of security, which is a bit too much. The game is developing fast and people are just fearless at the moment. The bowlers do have to come up with something, it is more important than ever before," Moeen said.
Hasaranga And Theekshana are world class: Bahutule
Like the KKR tweakers, the RR spinners Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga could not live up to the expectations on a track which helped the slow bowlers.
"We have spinners in Hasaranga and Theekshana who are obviously world-class international players. At times I thought they were short (today) whereas if they had just owned the lengths a bit longer, there was definitely a lot of purchase for the spinners," RR's spin-bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule said.
Theekshana went wicket-less and conceded 32 runs in fours overs, while Hasaranga gave away 34 runs in three overs while taking the wicket of Rahane.
"But again I just feel that they just got into the IPL championship, so now I am sure that in the coming games they will have an impact.
"I just trust all the spinners, all the bowlers in the team. I just want to say that it's again a young side, a very promising side batting wise, bowling wise. They are looking forward to every game and I am sure they will come good in the coming matches," Bahutule said.
