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Kolkata won a crucial game today against the Pune Warriors by 7 wickets and as a result reached the golden 16 point mark which is likely to be the bare minimum required to seal a play-off berth. It turned out to be an easy win for the Knight Riders as they chased down a paltry target of just 118 with 20 balls to spare. Kolkata appeared to finally get their team selection bang on and the depth in bowling meant they kept up picking important wickets to restrict Pune to under 6 an over. Gautam Gambhir then led the batting effort with an unbeaten half-century and was well supported Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan. Kolkata now have every chance to finish second if they beat the Mumbai Indians in the final match of the round robin stage on Sunday night.

Its the match the whole nation has been waiting for as Sourav Ganguly padded up to take on his former team the Kolkata Knight Riders at Navi Mumbai on Thursday. Both teams made some changes for this game with Pune giving a game to another former Knight Rider, Haryana's 26-year old medium pacer Sachin Rana. Alfonso Thomas also returned to the side with Mitchell Marsh missing out after playing the double header against Deccan.

Kolkata were without Eoin Morgan for this game with the Irish-born Englishman having returned home to stake a place in the national side for the Sri Lanka series. His absence meant a complete rejig of the team with Sreevats Goswami coming in to open the batting and also taking the gloves away from Mark Boucher. That meant two foreign vacancies with Ryan ten Doeschate and Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan finally getting recalls to the side.

Brett Lee had the new ball in his hands and Manish Pandey made full use of his pace striking him for a boundary to open his account. And Lee was left frustrated when the ball went racing past the lone slip just after second slip had been removed. Jesse Ryder's poor run against the spinners continued as he played a lousy shot to get out for 1 against Yusuf Pathan, who had shared the new ball with Lee. Gautam Gambhir made another vital bowling change as Iqbal Abdulla got rid of Pandey for 16. Once again Pune had lost wickets in the powerplay but the most awaited moment of the match arrived as Sourav Ganguly made his way into the middle. The ball was turning miles and the batsmen had to be careful against the variations of the spinners. Pune managed to score just 29 in the powerplay and hoped Ganguly would come into his own against his former team.

Ganguly survived an awkward moment off Shakib Al Hasan with a dual dismissal opportunity, with a catch to the keeper and the ball rolling back onto his stumps getting averted. At the other end, Callum Ferguson was sweeping the spinners pretty well but Shakib's vicious turn got better of him and he was stumped for 16. Ganguly was not looking too good and wasn't timing the ball properly but that looked set to change as he hit the first six of the night smashing the left arm spinner, Abdullah, straight down the ground. New man in Robin Uthappa reverse swept Shakib to get his first boundary. But Pune could have fallen in deeper trouble if Laxmipathi Balaji hadn't dropped Uthappa when he was on 7. The partnership though was broken in the following over as Ganguly(18) played it a sweep off Shakib straight to Yusuf Pathan and failed to make full use of the start he got. It was excellent captaincy by Gambhir to keep a fielder at square-leg inside the ring and Ganguly walked right into the trap.

Kolkata's poor fielding helped Yuvraj Singh with his firs boundary but Uthappa's dismal innings finally came to an end for 12 (19b) as he fell to Pathan while trying to clear the ropes. Pune weren't able to accelerate but Yuvraj was still present for the last few overs. Regular wickets had kept a check on the scoring rate and Pune needed to do something radical in order to pose a challenge. The 100 came up in the 18th over as Sachin Rana pulled Jacques Kallis for a boundary and that seemed like the beginning of the assault Pune needed to get to a par total.

Yuvraj couldn't finish the innings well for his side and was dismissed for 24 in the last over. Balaji knocked Rana(18) over with a yorker off the last ball of the innings to wrap up the excellent bowling effort. Such was the depth in bowling at Kolkata's disposal that Balaji bowled just the one over, and it was a special one as picked up 2 wickets in it. Shakib and Pathan also grabbed 2 wickets as the Pune bowlers shared the spoils as Kolkata restricted Pune to just 118.

There was no Jacques Kallis opening the batting for Kolkata as he was injured while bowling, but the Knight Riders had the perfect replacement as Gambhir bumped himself up to the top of the order. Pune though had a perfect start getting rid of Sreevats Goswami in the first over itself for just 6. But the luck favored Kolkata as two overthrows in two balls yielded Manoj Tiwary 10 runs. Ferguson was the culprit both times but that would be harsh on him as he had hit the stumps on both the occasions. Tiwary finally got something off the meat of the bat and that was good enough to set the ball sailing into the crowds. Kolkata were off to a great start having scored 32 in just 3 overs. Rahul Sharma has been the find of the season for Pune and he was brought on and tightened the screws with a 1 run over. Gambhir joined the action with couple of expolsive boundaries through the covers but Wayne Parnell came back with two beautiful deliveries that went past the edge of Gambhir's bat. With 43 runs scored in the powerplay, Kolkata were on course to chase down the modest total.

The 50 came up at the end of the 7th over but Bhuvneshwar Kumar finally broke the partnership as Tiwary(24) played the ball back to his own stumps. Gambhir continued to take the game away from Pune with occasional boundaries as Pune failed to do the job with the ball. Sharma had conceded just 2 runs off his first 10 balls but Pathan dented his figures with consecutive boundaries just before the strategic time-out was taken. Those boundaries dented Sharma's confidence as well as he was unable to land the ball in his next over. The Knight Riders were closing in on the target very quickly as Pune couldn't plug the gaps in the field. Gambhir was phenomenal with his approach against the spinners as he kept the runs coming. The 100 came up with a massive six from Pathan which also brought up the 50 partnership off just 35 balls.

Gambhir reached his 50 off just 43 balls as Kolkata needed just 5 more runs to get 2 important points for themselves. Ganguly gave his fans something to cheer about when he took a brilliant catch to dismiss Pathan for 29. Kolkata though finished the game with plenty of overs to spare.

The win meant a boost for Kolkata's net runrate which means that Punjab not only need to win against Deccan, but need to win big to qualify for the play-offs. Kolkata though will need to ensure that they do not slip up against the Mumbai Indians in their last match to open a window of opportunity for Kings XI Punjab.

Teams:

Pune Warriors - JD Ryder, MK Pandey, SC Ganguly, RV Uthappa (wk), Yuvraj Singh (c), CJ Ferguson, S Rana, AC Thomas, WD Parnell, B Kumar, R Sharma

Kolkata Knight Riders - SP Goswami (wk), JH Kallis, G Gambhir(c), MK Tiwary, YK Pathan, S Al Hasan, R ten Doeschate, I Abdulla, R Bhatia, B Lee, L Balaji.

Mini Scorecard:

Pune Warriors 118/7 in 20 overs (5.9 runs per over)
Y Singh     24(26)   L Balaji        2-7
S Ganguly 18(22)   S Al Hasan 2-16

Kolkata Knight Riders 119/3 in 16.4 overs (7.14 runs per over)
G Gambhir    54*(46)   B Kumar   1-19
Y Pathan      29(25)     W Parnell  1-27

Kolkata Knight Riders won by 7 wickets with 3.2 overs remaining