Indian Premier League

IPL 2010: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals at Kolkata

Captain Sourav Ganguly shepherded the Kolkata Knight Riders to an eight-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals that kept alive their hopes of making the 2010 Indian Premier League semi-finals and at the same time eliminated the Royals, champions in 2008.

On a slow, turning pitch at Eden Gardens, a packed house saw the Royals collapse from 59 without loss to make 132 for nine and the Knight Riders then recover from a poor start to get home in 16 overs and one ball.
Shane Watson hit 44 in 26 balls to get the Royals’ innings off to a fine start, the Australian hitting seven fours and a six before he missed a Laxmi Shukla slower ball and was bowled. The wickets continued to tumble as the Knight Riders combined tight bowling with superb catching and slack outfielding, Shukla, Ganguly and Chris Gayle all holding on to tough chances.

Debutant Aaron Finch made 21 and Faiz Fazal 13 as the Royals lost their way with the bat, Jaidev Unadkat returning three for 26 by dismissing Naman Ojha (18), Yusuf Pathan (8) and Abhishek Raut (2). The Knight Riders would have wanted Brendon McCullum (6) and Gayle (0) to provide their side with the platform from which they could have seriously enhanced their net run-rate but their dismissals, the former clipping Kamran Khan to square leg and the latter clean bowled by the same bowler, forced Ganguly and Cheteshwar Pujara to concentrate first on consolidating the innings.

This they did effectively and it wasn’t until such time as the game was almost won that the pair hit the accelerator, Ganguly hammering 11 fours and two sixes and Pujara five fours and a six as the game was eventually closed out with just under four overs to spare. Ganguly was unbeaten on 75 in 50 balls while Pujara made 45 in 38 and the pair shared an unbroken third-wicket stand of 112.