The Hindu : Sport : Ganguly stars in Knight Riders' runaway win

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Sport

Ganguly stars in Knight Riders' runaway win

S. Sabanayakan

End of the road for Rajasthan Royals; Unadkat is Man-of-the-match for his three for 26

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

Captain's knock:Sourav Ganguly's confident show made light of two early wickets to take Knight Riders to a crucial win.

KOLKATA: Skipper Sourav Ganguly produced a masterly unbeaten 75 to fashion Kolkata Knight Riders' eight-wicket victory which effectively put paid to Rajasthan Royals' chances of making it to the semifinals in the DLF IPL III at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday.

Logging 12 points from13 games, KKR will go into the final league encounter against table-topper Mumbai Indians with a lot more confidence on Monday. RR ended its campaign with 12 points.

What was billed as the battle between two icons, Shane Warne and Ganguly, the latter came up trumps as KKR crushed RR with 3.5 overs to spare. Jaydev Unadkat was adjudged Man-of-the-match for his effort with the ball

KKR did not exactly have a great start losing Brendon McCullum, opening the innings for the first time, early. Chris Gayle's dismissal was another big blow for the home side, left-arm pacer Kamran Khan picking up both the prized scalps. RR's success story ended there as Ganguly and Cheteshwar Pujara (45 not out) produced unbroken 111-run partnership off 80 balls for the third wicket to take the team home in 16.1 overs in reply to RR's 132 for nine in 20 overs.

Ganguly's innings was superbly paced. Despite the loss of two early wickets, the veteran, in the company of young Pujara, took control of the situation to guide the youngster whose knowledge of playing most of the Indian players in the RR team came very handy.

Ganguly's unbeaten 75 (50b, 11x4, 2x6) and Pujara's undefeated 45 (38b, 5x4, 1x6) made the game a no contest.

RR won the toss and opened the innings with Shane Watson and Naman Ojha.

The two put on the best partnership of the innings with 59 runs in 7.3 overs in which the Aussie contributed 44 runs.

Ganguly tried four of his best bowlers to break the pair but it was Laxmi Ratan Shukla who got the much-needed break-through with a slower one.

Watson shaped to pull but found the ball coming slow and dislodging his stumps.

His entertaining 26-ball 44 contained seven firmly struck boundaries and a six.

Watson's departure ended the best phase of the RR innings as wickets began to tumble at regular intervals. Teenager Unadkat, playing his second IPL game, and going for 14 runs in his first over, triggered a mini collapse as he picked up the wickets of Naman Ojha, brilliantly taken by Shukla at backward point, and the dangerous Yusuf Pathan, another brilliant effort by Ganguly, in successive overs to leave the visitors at 74 for three.

Thereafter RR could not recover from the early jolts as it lost two more wickets by the 15th over to be at a none-too-impressive 101.

With the cream of the batting back in the dugout, KKR bowlers did a tremendous job by restricting RR to 132 for nine.

KKR's best phase was between the 11th and 16th overs. The six overs produced a measly 27 runs for the loss of three wickets.

Unadkat was the pick with his best figures of three for 26. He gave away just 12 runs in three overs in scalping three wickets.

Ashok Dinda (2-24), Shane Bond (1-20), Murali Kartik (1-31) and Shukla (1-30) were the others who excelled with the ball.

The scores:

Rajasthan Royals: S. Watson b Shukla 44 (26b, 7x4, 1x6), N. Ojha c Shukla b Unadkat 18 (22b, 3x4), Yousuf c Ganguly b Unadkat 8 (9b, 1x4), A. Finch b Bond 21 (21b, 1x6), A. Voges c Kartik b Dinda 8 (7b, 1x4), A. Raut c Gayle b Unadkat 2 (4b), P. Dogra b Kartik 8 (12b), F. Fazal (run out) 13 (13b, 1x4), S. Warne (not out) 3 (4b), S. Trivedi c Unadkat b Dinda 4 (2b, 1x4), Kamran Khan (not out) 0 (0b); Extras (b-1, w-2): 3. Total (for nine wickets; 20 overs): 132.

Fall of wickets: 1-59, 2-69, 3-74, 4-98, 5-101, 6-103, 7-115, 8-126, 9-130.

Kokata Knight Riders bowling: Bond 4-1-20-1, Dinda 4-0-24-2, Kartik 4-0-31-1, Unadkat 4-0-26-3, Shukla 4-0-30-1.

Kolkata Knight Riders: S. Ganguly (not out) 75 (50b, 11x4, 2x6), B. McCullum c Watson b Kamran 6 (7b, 1x4), C. Gayle b Kamran 0 (2b), C. Pujara (not out) 45 (38b, 5x4, 1x6); Extras (w-7): 7. Total (for two wickets, 16.1 overs): 133.

Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-22.

Rajasthan Royals bowling: Yousuf 3-0-32-0, Watson 3-0-17-0, Kamran 2-0-13-2, Trivedi 2-0-16-0, Warne 3-0-20-0, Finch 1.1-0-5-0, Voges 1-0-16-0, Fazal 1-0-14-0 .