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It continues to be a season of firsts. After the Deccan Chargers won their first ever game at their home ground in Hyderabad on Thursday, the Rajasthan Royals lost their first match at Jaipur thanks to a resplendent batting performance by the Kolkata Knight Riders. Gautam Gambhir produced a captain’s innings of 75 and was ably supported by Jacques Kallis (80 off 65), as the away team chased down a 160 run target with 9 wickets in hand and an equal number of balls to spare. The fact that Shane Warne failed to claim a single wicket on a sluggish track perfectly mirrored the Rajasthani fortunes on a day where the priciest Kolkata players came good against a lack lustre bowling attack.

Kolkata Kinght Riders looking for their first away win this season took on the Rajasthan Royals who have an immaculate home record at Jaipur on Friday. Gautam Gambhir, citing a preference for chasing, put Rajasthan into bat on a track that was unlikely to change much for the duration of the game. Having had a brilliant run in Bangladesh, Shane Watson came back into the Rajasthan team replacing compatriot Shaun Tait and Nayan Doshi replaced Ajinkya Rahane. Kolkata also fielded two changes: Shakib Al Hasan and Brett Lee came in place of Ryan Ten Doeschate and Jaidev Unadkat, the young left-arm seamer particularly unfortunate to lose his spot.

Rahul Dravid started off the innings in typical fashion, playing cautiously, but scoring steadily off the bad balls while his partner Amit Paunikar dug his own grave by playing an overly cautious innings. He scored 9 off 15 balls before attempting a desperate heave only to edge the second change Shaib Al Hasan to Kallis at short third man. Brett Lee bowled a brilliant first spell to restrict the Royals to 31/1 in the powerplay.

Dravid and Ashok Menaria then upped the scoring rate playing intelligently through the next few overs taking Rajasthan to an enviable 75 off 11 overs but Yusuf Pathan was then brought into the attack. The former Royals all rounder picked the wickets of Dravid and Menaria in the space of three balls to leave the home team at 79/3 after 12. This was a thinly disguised blessing for Rajasthan as it brought Shane Watson and Ross Taylor together! Watson, who has been having a dream run with the bat, smashed two sixes off Shakib but the wily spinner prevailed removing Watson after a useful 22 off 13 balls.

Ross Taylor scored at a good rate, first partnering Watson and then Johan Botha to remain unbeaten on 35 off 25 balls. Botha scored a run a ball twelve as a slightly wayward last over from Lee took the Royals to an intimidating 159/4. Shakib Al Hasan was the pick of the bowlers with 2/31 in four overs, though Pathan had the best figures with 2/4 in his only over. The pacers Lakshmipathy Balaji, Jacques Kallis and Brett Lee all sustained expensive second spells as the last five overs yielded 57 runs.

The Kolkata chase received its first jolt, early in the innings as Manvinder Bisla found himself miles out of his crease on the third ball of the second over. The run-out was referred to the third umpire and although the replays showed the ball popping out of the keeper’s hand before the stumps were broken, the batsman was given out. Captain Gambhir joined Kallis at the crease at 7/1 and they began to make merry right from the word go. Some explosive batting saw Kolkata zoom away to 62/1 after 6 as the Royals' seamers were taken to the cleaners.

The left-right duo, that pundits believe should be opening the batting, began to rotate the strike ably and unfailingly produced a boundary every over to ensure stability in terms of wickets and run-rate. The Royals' strike bowlers, captain Shane Warne and Siddharth Trivedi too failed a deliver a breakthrough on a day when Shaun Tait’s wicket taking ability was sorely missed. The only chance was produced by Trivedi in the fifteenth over as Gambhir was caught on the deep mid wicket boundary. In a way that befitted Rajasthan’s fortunes, the delivery was called a no ball as there were only three men inside the circle instead of the stipulated four. At the end of that over the score stood at 130 with Gambhir on 71 and Kallis on 54.

Kallis then proceeded to finish things off by the third ball of the nineteenth over with some good hitting which saw him over take Gambhir (75 off 44), doing the team’s net run rate a world of good. Their partnership which yielded 151 runs in just 103 deliveries made sure not a single bowler in the Royals’ bowling attack would receive a mention in the score card. The Royals bowled seven bowlers and only the regular spinners finished with slightly respectable figures.

With a win like this, Kolkata have sent a clear signal to the rest of the teams that they are a force to reckon with. If the two run loss against Chennai can be discounted, they look to be one of the toughest teams in this edition of the IPL and could well break their jinx this season. While it might take the Rajasthan Royals a while to recover from this shock, they need to pick themselves up pretty soon as they face - surprise, surprise - the Knight Riders once again, this time in Kolkata on Sunday the 17th. As far as the points table goes, the duo are neck to neck with the victor occupying third place based on the superior net run rate gathered in this match.

Teams:

Rajasthan Royals: R Dravid, A Paunikar, A Mineria, S Watson, R Taylor, J Botha, A Raut, S Warne, A Singh, S Trivedi, N Doshi

Kolkata Knight Riders: M Bisla, J Kallis, G Gambhir, M Tiwary, Y Pathan, E Morgan, S Al Hasan, B Lee, L Balaji, I Abdullah, R Bhatia

Mini Scorecard:

Rajasthan Royals 159/4 in 20 overs (7.95 runs per over)
R Taylor 35(25) Y Pathan 1-4
R Dravid 35(24) S Al Hasan 2-31

Kolkata Knight Riders 160/1 in 18.3 overs (8.64 runs per over)
J Kallis 80*(65) J Botha 0-13
G Gambhir 75*(44) A Menaria 0-18

Kolkata Knight Riders won by 9 wickets with 9 balls remaining