"We have to accept that this IPL is different."

Varun Chakaravarthy put it best. He was speaking after Kolkata Knight Riders' facile seven-wicket win over Delhi Capitals at the Eden Gardens, which for once was a throwback to the era of middling totals.

Coincidentally, there was a little bit in the pitch for the spinners, something that Varun utilized to the utmost en route to bowling figures of 4-0-16-3. The win not only came as a breather for him in what's largely been an indifferent season but also for his side, which only in its previous game had failed to defend a target of 262. It was the highest run-chase in T20 cricket.

"The last two matches before this, we didn't defend that well," Varun admitted. "Because the wickets have become very placid in the second innings and definitely the fact that we got to bowl in the first innings was good. The pitch was also a little helpful.

"The other pitches have also been slow but this pitch was a little bit more turning. That was the difference. The length is basically the same for all the matches. It's just how the wicket behaves. In other matches, it was not giving this much help but this wicket gave and helped our bowlers."

Varun spoke about how the side recovered from the despiriting defeat in their last game and posted a crucial win in their next.

"The last match was a very hard pill to swallow," Varun said. "We had many conversations with the management, we spoke with the coaches Carl Crowe, Bharat Arun sir, Gambhir, Chandrakant sir, Abhishek Nair; everyone chipped in. We came up with many tactics. Even Shah Rukh bhai, he came up to us yesterday and spoke to me lot about... [he said] 'don't take it personally, whatever is happening this IPL is just going at a crazy rate, just don't self doubt yourself'.

"It was a good performance from my side also and the last game was helpful."

Like others, Varun also felt that Impact Player has had a large role to play in a season of soaring team totals.

"I feel like I have been doing my processes well only but if you see the results, last match and before that, it was not out there. We have to accept that this IPL is different and we have to mentally accept the challenge," Varun said.

"Last year the Impact Player rule was also there. The main thing is that teams have now understood how to better use the impact player this season. So they all know that there is extra batting and they want to charge from the first ball. And that's how it's going. However much the bowlers cry, that's how it is. We have to take up the challenge. You can't change the side of the ground or you can't change anything."

Varun hailed the effort of new-ball bowlers who ensured that KKR got regular wickets upfront even as Delhi Capitals looked to keep going hard after opting to bat.

"So that has been the trend and if you see Eden Gardens, everyone wants to post big totals and they have a positive intent. I can't say that it's wrong but I feel our bowlers in the powerplay, they bowled brilliantly. like how Starc and Vaibhav bowled. So we have to give it to our bowlers this time," Varun said.

"If they would have scored 190 or 200... I felt it was around 185 to 190 pitch; if they had scored that anything could have happened."