Kolkata, Apr 18 (IANS): Skipper Sourav Ganguly played a marvellous unconquered knock as he piloted Kolkata Knight Riders to an emphatic eight-wicket victory against the Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match here Saturday, overcoming initial hiccups.
After restricting the Royals to a modest 132/9, the Knight Riders lost two early wickets but Ganguly (75 not out off 50 balls) scored his fourth half century of the tournament and alongside Cheteshwar Pujara (45 not out off 38 balls) first steadied the ship with some responsible batting before going full blast.
The duo added 111 for the unfinished third wicket stand as the Knight Riders reached the winning target of 133 with 3.5 overs to spare before a capacity crowd at the Eden Gardens, thereby also keeping alive their chances of a semifinal berth, with 12 points from 13 games.
The Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise are now sixth, and need to win their last round robin outing against the league's best side Mumbai Indians by a big margin at home Monday and then hope for some favourable results in the other games.
Rajasthan Royals finished their league engagements with 12 points and now lie seventh in the table, nosing over wooden spooners Kings XI Punjab.
Set an asking rate of 6.65 per over, the Knights got two early jolts as Brendon McCullum (6) and Chris Gayle (0) departed by the third over with only 22 on the board.
New Zealander McCullum, who has failed to find his bearings in the tournament, continued his flop show despite coming in as opener. He failed to control his shot and finished into the hands of Shane Watson at square leg.
West Indian Gayle, a mainstay of the KKR batting, went back only two balls later with Kamran Khan getting him bowled through the bat-pad gap.
Ganguly (11x4, 2x6), who started off with two boundaries in the first over, cut his stroke making and kept the scoreboard moving with ones and twos after the twin blows.
Ganguly and Pujara set the launchpad for an assault by taking their team to 73/2 after the 11th over, and then cut loose.
A dozen came off the 12th over, and 16 off the 13th, as the two batsmen tore the bowling to shreds and completely tilted the balance in the hosts’ favour.
Ganguly executed some exquisite off-side shots, besides some pulls, and his trademark lofted strokes by stepping out to the bowlers. Pujara also came up with some good shots on both sides of the wicket.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals got off to a determined start with openers Shane Watson (44 off 26 balls) and Naman Ojha (18 off 22 balls) putting on 59 runs in 7.2 overs before Laxmi Ratan Shukla got rid of the Australian with a slower delivery. Watson, who seemed in fine touch (7x4, 1x6) went for a pull, missed and saw his stumps knocked off the ground.
Ojha departed in the next over as Shukla dived full length to take a wonderful catch at point to give pacer Jaidev Unadkat his first wicket of the tournament.
This triggered a one-way procession to the pavilion, as the Royals lost seven more wickets by the time they finished their quota. The Knights fielded superbly, taking out-of-the-world catches, with only two more visiting batsmen Aaron Finch (21) and Faiz Fazal (13) to get into the double figures.
Young Unadkat, sharply criticised for conceding too many runs in his debut game against Kings XI Punjab, finished as the most successful bowler (3/26) to run away with the Man of the Match award. Ashok Dinda got two wickets.