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The Knight Riders are well and truly in the IPL title hunt this season winning their third match in succession after comprehensively beating the Rajasthan Royals by 8 wickets at Eden Gardens on Sunday. The Knight Riders put up a great show with the ball routing the Royals for just 81, having put them in. This was Royals’ lowest score in the IPL. The wrecker-in-chief for Kolkata was former Indian seamer, the smilling assassin Laxmipathi Balaji who picked up 3 wickets for just 15 runs. Balaji was well supported by all the other bowlers who kept the pressure on from the very first ball. The Knight Riders had a bit of a scare losing Jacques Kallis early but Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary ensured they picked up an easy win with plenty of overs in hand.

Two teams which met just two days ago in Jaipur were up against each other once again, this time on the significantly more hallowed turf at Eden Gardens. Kolkata Knight Riders got better of the Rajasthan Royals last time out, and the home side would have been anxious to do the double over the Royals.

Rajasthan had to make two changes with both Rahul Dravid and Johan Botha struggling with injuries. Dravid was replaced by left handed batsman Faiz Fazal while Shaun Tait was back in the side in place of Botha. Kolkata on the other hand were unchanged. Gautam Gambhir won the toss and decided to bowl first with an eye on the results thus far in the League as 12 out of 16 games had been won by sides batting second.

Shane Watson was back to the opening spot after a rare appearance in the middle order. Brett Lee started with a brilliant first over giving no room at all for the batsmen to free their arms. Shakib Al Hasan started from the other end but had difficulties gripping the ball with the dew around. He was smashed to the boundary twice that over and was removed out of the attack straight away. Lee continued to bowl brilliantly and in the 4^th over Laxmipathi Balaji bowled the ball of his life to get rid of Watson for just 11. The ball had landed on the perfect spot, moved away after hitting the deck and clipped the top of off stump, a dream ball for every fast bowler. Kolkata tasted success once more when Iqbal Abdulla had Amit Paunikar stumped next over. The decision to bowl first was paying off with Rajasthan on the back foot at 36/2 at the end of the powerplay.

Abdulla was in the thick of the action once again when he ran out Faiz Fazal off his own bowling, despite having only one stump to aim at. With three batsmen back in the pavilion Kolkata were well on top. Rajasthan’s poor running gave way for the 4^th wicket when Abhishek Raut was run out for 11. Ashok Menaria, who has been hitting a few sixes, gave Rajasthan fans something to cheer about hitting a boundary and a six off Abdulla in a single over. The pressure though was piling up on the batsmen and resulted in Ross Taylor (7) coming down the pitch only to miss the ball and Manvinder Bisla completed the stumping. With half their side back in the pavilion Rajasthan were looking completely at sea without the experience of Rahul Dravid at the top of the order. Runs were coming in single with two Indian youngsters, Ajinkya Rahane and Menaria, entrusted with the responsibility of taking their side to a respectable score. Balaji, who was in brilliant form, struck a massive double blow removing both batsmen in the same over.

At 79 for 7 and with 6 overs to go, Rajasthan feared getting bowled out inside 20 overs. Shakib Al Hasan got through Amit Singh to give the crowd another reason to cheer. The Bangladesh skipper was on a hattrick as he bowled Shaun Tait first ball but couldn’t pick up a third in as many deliveries. Brett Lee hadn’t picked up a wicket all game, but came back to send Siddharth Trivedi’s stumps flying to bowl Rajasthan out for a meager 81 runs in just the 16^th over.

Kolkata too had a nervy start losing the prized wicket of Jacques Kallis second ball when he edged one to the slips off Tait. Watson was swinging the ball from the other end and it wasn’t looking too easy for the Knight Riders. Bisla played and missed many deliveries and escaped a close chance when an attempted pull fell between two fielders. Gambhir was calm and was looking to see off the new ball. Kolkata looked in no hurry to get the runs and wanted to keep their wickets intact. Gambhir started middling the ball but Bisla was stagnating. The wicketkeeper batsman tried to come down the track and chip Warne, but Raut took a wonderful catch to give Rajasthan a second breakthrough to leave the Knight Riders at 31/2 at the end of 7 overs.

Tait was off target to start his second spell but bowled well in stages. It wasn’t looking like a T20 contest, rather a test match with close in fielders and not many boundaries hit. The Knight Riders were doing it in singles and Gambhir was dropping the ball into the gaps and stealing runs. The 50 of the innings came up at the end of the 11^th over and Rajastan were doing their best to prevent a demoralising defeat. Kolkata local Manoj Tiwary decided to give the crowd what they deserved. Manoj took the attack to Shaun Tait flashing away a six over third man and then hit two boundaries to take the Knight Riders ever close to the target. Gambhir hit the winning runs smashing a full toss past the ropes to remain unbeaten for a run a ball 35. Tiwary scored a brisk 30 off 26 as Kolkata wrapped up the game inside 14 overs to give their net run rate a major boost.

The win takes the Knight Riders to the top of the table and the Kolkata outfit after years of disappointing look a force to reckon with. Rajasthan fell one place to 5^th having lost to Kolkata twice in a span of three days. The Royals next travel to Bangalore to face the Royal Challengers, who themselves have lost three in a row. Kolkata are on a winning spree having won three straight games and will next host the Kochi Tuskers, who registered a huge win against the Mumbai Indians in their last outing.

Teams:

Kolkata Knight Riders: JH Kallis, MS Bisla(wk), G Gambhir(c), MK Tiwary, YK Pathan, EJG Morgan, Shakib Al Hasan, I Abdulla, R Bhatia, B Lee, L Balaji.

Rajasthan Royals: SR Watson, FY Fazal, AM Rahane, AL Menaria, LRPL Taylor, AG Paunikar(wk), AS Raut, SK Warne(c), A Singh, SK Trivedi, SW Tait.

Mini Scorecard:

Rajasthan Royals 81 all out in 15.2 overs (5.28 runs per over)
A Menaria 21(17) L Balaji 3-15
A Paunikar 15(15) S Al Hasan 2-21

Kolkata Knight Riders 85/2 in 13.5 overs (6.14 runs per over)
G Gambhir 35*(35) S Warne 1-17
M Tiwary 30*(26) S Tait 1-29

Kolkata win by 8 wicket with 6.1 overs to spare