Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer lauded Varun Chakravarthy after their seven-wicket win against Delhi Capitals at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Monday. Chakravarthy returned with figures of 3-16 in his quota of four overs and played a key role in restricting the opposition to 153.

The mystery spinner accounted for Rishabh Pant, Tristan Stubbs, and Kumar Kushagra in his fine spell. Chakravarthy should have dismissed Pant earlier but Harshit Rana dropped an easy catch. The Tamil Nadu spinner was right on the money and he was able to reap the rewards.

Shreyas Iyer said in the post-match presentation, “Varun has not been at his best the last few games. He has been assessing the wicket and has been giving us inputs. The way he turned up today was simply brilliant.”

Meanwhile, Iyer admitted he was surprised by the wicket as 200 was a par score in the last few matches in Kolkata. KKR kept taking wickets at regular intervals to keep the pressure on DC and the pitch was helpful for the spinners.

Iyer added when asked if this was the kind of pitch he expected, “Not at all. Considering the last few matches, 200 was a par score. After the powerplay the pitch started helping the spinners, was tacky. We got a fair idea as to how it played and to tackle the tackiness. Narine still does not attend those meetings but Salt is always there, gives us his inputs and it’s pure bliss to see him coming up and doing all this.”

This was KKR’s sixth win of the season in nine matches and Iyer revealed that the plan is to qualify for the playoff as early as they can.

Iyer concluded, “We have always been looking at it, even from the first game. The mindset is to qualify as early as possible. Just work on our work ethic and processes, don’t want to look at the points table.”

Kolkata Knight Riders will next take on Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Friday.