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Kolkata: The only franchisee not to have made the semifinals in the first three editions of IPL, KKR galloped to pole position in the 10-team standings with their third straight win on Sunday evening. If it was their batters who stole the show in Round 1 of their duel with Rajasthan Royals two days ago in Jaipur, the bowlers and fielders conjured a magical jugalbandi to blow away Shane Warne's team by eight wickets at the Eden in front of a 50,000-plus holiday crowd.
Lakshmipathy Balaji led the charge with the ball, relishing the low and sluggish pitch to torment the opposition with his accurate leg-cutters after Gautam Gambhir opted to field first for the second game running. One such beauty cleaned up the dangerous Shane Watson before the in-form Aussie could bare his claws.
That early wicket set the tone nicely for KKR, but even they would have been surprised to see the Royals fold up for 81 (the lowest total in IPL 4) in 15.2 overs. Balaji, in his first season for KKR after being 'bought over' from Chennai Super Kings, returned remarkable figures of three for 15 in 3 overs, while Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan took two off two balls. Brett Lee did his job as well, so did Iqbal Abdulla who picked up a wicket besides running out Faiz Fazal.
The Knights, handed the luxury of chasing four runs an over, saw a rare first-over dismissal of the prolific and accomplished Jacques Kallis. That, too, off a short ball with the South African opener shaping for a pull off Shaun Tait only to check his shot and top-edge a high catch.
But so meagre was the target, Gambhir and Manvinder Bisla could afford to take their time in the face of some fiery stuff from Tait, who steamed in with four slips and a gully in his opening spell in an obvious effort to rip off the KKR top-order. Bisla succumbed to Warne, but Gambhir (35 not out off 35 balls, 3x4), who is truly looking like a man on a mission, and local boy Manoj Tiwary (30 not out off 26 balls, 4x4, 1x6) stepped on the pedal and raced past the target with 6.1 overs to spare.
Tiwary, especially, turned on the style in the end with a sequence of 6, 4 and 4 off Tait's final over to the delight of the huge audience.
Brief scores
Rajasthan Royals 81 (Balaji 3-15, Shakib Al Hasan 2-21)
Kolkata Knight Riders 85 for 2 (Gambhir 35* , Tiwary 30*)
Results Kolkata Knight Riders won by 8 wickets
MOM Lakshmipathy Balaji (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Points Kolkata Knight Riders 2, Rajasthan Royals 0
