Varun Chakaravarthy apes KL Rahul's ‘my ground’ celebration after KKR crush CSK in Chennai in IPL 2025
Varun pointed towards the ground and drew a circle with his hand, suggesting that it was his home turf, exactly like Rahul did with the bat.
Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Varun Chakaravarthy aped Delhi Capitals batter KL Rahul's 'my ground' celebration after KKR beat Chennai Super Kings in an IPL 2025 match at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday. Chakavarthy, who plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket, relished the opportunity of bowling at his home ground, returning with figures of 2 for 22. He and fellow spinners Moeen Ali and Sunil Narine bamboozled the CSK batters, restricting them to their lowest score (103/9) in the IPL at home. The KKR batters took just 10.1 overs to knock off the target and hand CSK one of the heaviest defeats ever.
After the match, Varun pointed towards the ground and drew a circle with his hand, suggesting that it was his home turf, exactly like Rahul did with the bat after helping DC chase down RCB's target at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Rahul smashed 93* in just 53 balls, laced with seven fours and six sixes in the IPL match against RCB.
After the win, KL, who was reserved and calm on the field, was extremely animated. He thumped his chest and pointed towards the ground and at his jersey as if saying that it (M Chinnaswammy Stadium) was his. He was also seen tapping his bat on the ground.
Speaking in a video by DC, Rahul said, "This is a special place from me. This celebration was from one of my favourite movies, Kantara. So, a tiny reminder that this ground, this turf, this place where I grew up, is mine." Being a Karnataka player, KL has played bulk of his domestic cricket at M Chinnnaswammy Stadium and even played two IPL seasons for RCB, in 2013 and 2016.
Varun, on the other hand, had played all his cricket at the Chepauk. In a video posted by KKR, the leg-spinner was seen aping Rahul's celebration with a cheeky smile on his face.
Narine was the pick of the bowlers for the Kolkata-based franchise in the game, where he snapped three wickets and conceded just 13 runs in his spell of four overs. He shined with the bat, too, where he slammed 44 runs from 18 balls, which was laced with five maximums and two boundaries in his innings. The 36-year-old was awarded the Player of the Match following his all-round performance.
On the other hand, Chakravarthy bagged two wickets in his four overs, where he gave away 22 runs in the match. He conceded runs at an economy of 5.5 and took the wickets of Vijay Shankar and Deepak Hooda in his spell.
"It was nice, and having two left-handers helped my case. Just trying to keep it as tight as I can and pick up a couple of wickets. Tonight, I picked up one. It is nice, and Rinku's dive for me to stop that four was big for my confidence. Try not to bowl too quickly; just give time to spin, and sometimes it skids, sometimes it spins. I like to keep the shape of the ball and try to spin it. They (Narine and Varun) are amazing spinners, and they have been for a while now, especially Sunil. If I can bowl a couple of overs up top and set them up in the middle where they are quite hard to hit, I am learning from them and trying to keep up. It [the pitch] was a little bit tacky; you don't need to spin every ball, just one to put the doubt in the batter's mind," Moeen Ali said in the post-match presentation.
Moeen Ali had a good day out with the ball, where he grabbed one wicket in his spell of four overs, where he gave away 20 runs at an economy of 5. He bowled one maiden over and took the wickets of Devon Conway in his spell.
