Jaipur: An inspired Rajasthan Royals inflicted a second successive defeat on Kolkata Knight Riders as the Gautam Gambhir-led side lost by 22 runs in the seventh match of IPL 5 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium yesterday.
Chasing a competitive target of 165, Kolkata were pegged back by a flurry of initial wickets, losing Jacques Kallis (5), Gambhir (0) and Brendon McCullum (2) in successive deliveries. While Amit Singh did the damage at the top, Kevon Cooper struck at the end to finish with figures of three for 28, though both missed out on a hat-trick chance. Slow left-armer Ankit Chavan, who started the proceedings for the home side, and Siddharth Trivedi also took two wickets each.
Manoj Tiwary was the last man dismissed, out for a fighting 59, and, along with Yousuf Pathan (15), he tried to bring the derailed Kolkata innings back on track with a 41-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
But the dismissal of Pathan, who was caught brilliantly by Brad Hodge while running backwards off Trivedi, ended Kolkata's hopes of chasing down Rajasthan's total. KKR were eventually all out for 142, with Brett Lee contributing 25 down the order.
Earlier, Rajasthan also got off to a terrible start after being put into bat, losing the wicket of last-match's hero Ajinkya Rahane for naught. Never sure of a single, Rahane accepted a call from skipper Rahul Dravid from the non-striker's end, but despite a full-stretched dive, found himself well short of the ground.
Some attacking shots — a hook for a six off Lee and a well-placed sweep for another maximum off debutant Sunil Narine — by Dravid got Rajasthan's innings going. But he found himself out of breath and got run out when he attempted a second with Sreevats Goswami (23), who also didn't last long and was bowled by Rajat Bhatia.
Scoreboard
Rajasthan Royals
- Rahul Dravid run out (Iqbal Abdulla/Bhatia) 26
- Ajinkya Rahane run out (Gambhir) 0
- Shreevats Goswami b Bhatia 23
- Ashok Menaria b Lee 40
- Brad Hodge c McCullum b Lee 44
- Owais Shah not out 23
- Kevon Cooper not out 5
- Extras: (w 2, nb 1) 3
- Total: (for five wickets in 20 overs) 164
- Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Rahane, 1.3 overs), 2-44 (Dravid, 6.4), 3-61 (Goswami, 8.4), 4-125 (Hodge, 16.1), 5-152 (Menaria, 18.4)
- Brett Lee 4-0-29-2
- Jacques Kallis 4-0-35-0
- Sunil Narine 4-0-29-0
- Iqbal Abdulla 2-0-16-0
- Rajat Bhatia 4-0-27-1
- Yousuf Pathan 2-0-28-0
Kolkata Knight Riders
- Jacques Kallis c Dravid b Singh 5
- Brendon McCullum lbw b Chavan 2
- Gautam Gambhir c Goswami b Singh 0
- Manoj Tiwary b Botha 59
- Debabrata Das b Cooper 12
- Yousuf Pathan c Hodge b Trivedi 15
- Rajat Bhatia c&b Trivedi 8
- Laxmi Shukla c Shah b Chavan 8
- Brett Lee b Cooper 25
- Sunil Narine b Cooper 0
- Extras: (b 1, lb 1, w 5) 7
- Total: (all out; 20 overs) 142
- Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Kallis, 1.5 overs), 2-8 (Gambhir, 1.6), 3-8 (McCullum, 2.1), 4-25 (Das, 5.4), 5-66 (Pathan, 10.2), 6-77 (Bhatia, 12.2), 7-94 (Shukla, 14.4), 8-132 (Lee, 18.2), 9-132 (Narine, 18.3), 10-142 (Tiwary, 19.6)
- Ankit Chavan 4-0-23-2
- Amit Singh 4-0-30-2
- Kevon Cooper 4-0-28-3
- Siddharth Trivedi 4-1-25-2
- Johan Botha 4-0-34-1
- Match details:
- Toss: Kolkata Knight Riders chose to field
- Umpires: Billy Bowden (New Zealand) and Vineet Kulkarni
- TV umpire Shavir Tarapore
- Match referee Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka)
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