Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won their second consecutive match in a row as they defeated Kings XI Punjab by eight wickets and 16 balls to spare at a league level match of the Indian Premiere League (IPL) at the iconic Eden Gardens stadium here on Saturday night.
Chasing the visitors score of 119 runs for the loss of six wickets, KKR reached the winning score of 120 runs for the loss of only two wickets in just 17.2 overs.
After receiving some initial blows from the Punjab bowlers as young left arm spinner BA Bhatt picked up the crucial wicket of J. Kallis in the first ball of the very second over of the match.
But the tension period normalised to a greater extent as EJG Morgan (28) and Gambhir continued to bat freely in the match.
Morgan kept on hitting boundaries, keeping the Punjab bowlers under pressure in the match.
He hit six boundaries in the match before losing his wicket to Bhatt.
Australian Ryan Harris dived to take a superb catch near the boundary and make Eoin Morgan return back to the pavilion.
Audience at Eden Gardens and celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Kapoor and team owner Shah Rukh Khan might have felt some nerve-cracking moments at that point of the match with KKR needing 85 more runs to win the match.
But it was cool and composed Gautam Gambhir and the in-form local lad Manoj Tiwary who batted sensibly to take their side to the winning score of 120 runs.
Manoj continued his good form as he scored a much needed 34 runs from 41 deliveries.He hit three boundaries and a huge sixer in the match, driving the match away from the Punjab players.
Skipper Gambhir scored a captains knock of 45 runs from 44 deliveries as he guided his side to their consecutive victory in this middle stage of the tournament.
Earlier, the Kings XI Punjab players could only score 119 runs on a spinner friendly Eden track where the little rain before the match was helping the spinners well.
KD Karthik who scored 42 from 42 deliveries remained the highest scorer of the match.
However, things were not looking so easy for the KKR men as opener Gilchrist was timing the ball quite well, hitting the KKR bowlers all around the park.
Gilchrist hit three boundaries and an over boundary in his 26 runs innings from 27 deliveries before losing his wicket to I.Abdulla.
Abdulla bowled the ball of his life as Gilchrist missed the ball completely and it went between his legs to bowl him out.
Abdulla picked up two wicket in the match and remained the key bowler for the Knights.
Despite a victory and Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra cheering for the home side, the much-talked about moment of the night was of course the presence of Indian cricketing icon and local hero Sourav Ganguly in the stadium.
The entire Eden gained momentum and cheered aloud 'dada' as they felt his presence at the stadium.
The electronic scoreboard at the Eden Gardens also flashed 'Welcome Dada' as the 'Mexican waves' gained more heights and life in the significant 37th IPL encounter on Saturday night which ended with KKR's victory and accession to the first position in the points table once again.
Pertinently, Sourav was replaced by Gautam Gambhir as captain of KKR this year.
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