Bangalore: Riding on unbeaten half-centuries by Jacques Kallis and skipper Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata Knight Riders registered a convincing nine-wicket win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore in their must-win Champions League encounter here on Thursday.
Kallis clobbered 64 off in just 47 deliveries, while Gambhir struck 55 in 32 balls.
Chasing a competitive 170 runs for victory, KKR got off to a terrific start, with Kallis and wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin, who scored a quick-fire 42 off 27 deliveries.
Gambhir joined Kallis with the score on 62 and the two batsmen kept the scoreboard ticking without losing any further wicket. Gambhir, as expected, took more chances than Kallis and hit three fours and four sixes during his innings. But the South African batsman was not far behind as far as the strike rate was concerned and hit four boundaries and one six during his knock.
With the Challengers' demolition, KKR somehow stay alive in this competition. Now a lot will depend on their next game against the Warriors, which they have to win by a huge margin while hoping for other teams to slip in the race for the semi-finals.
RCB, on the other hand, made life difficult for themselves after their second loss on the trot. They also need to win their remaining two matches to make it to the last-four.
Earlier, a splendid innings by skipper Daniel Vettori alongside Raju Bhatkal helped RCB post a challenging 169 for nine.
They were 91 for six at one stage, but Vettori launched a swift yet brutal counter-attack on the KKR bowlers in the company of Bhatkal. The duo added 61 runs in only 5.2 overs as Gautam Gambhir's bowlers lost the plot at the death. The last six overs produced 75 runs for RCB.
Vettori was out on the last delivery of the innings after smashing 44 off 23 balls with the help of two sixes and five fours. Bhatkal contributed a useful 25 from 18 balls, including two fours and six.
Before that, KKR captain Gambhir won the toss and elected to bowl. Jaidev Unadkat was brought into the side in place of off-colour L Balaji. They had also included medium-pacer Shami Ahmed into their playing eleven.
Brett Lee, who has had a torrid time in the last few games, bowled a maiden first over to the dashing Chris Gayle (25).
However Gayle broke the shackles in the very next over from Brett Lee, hitting him for two sixes. He hit another six but it was Jacques Kallis' brilliant yorker that castled the former Windies skipper.
In the very next over, the dangerous Virat Kohli was undone by a short-pitched delivery by Lee. He got out without troubling the scorers.
Saurabh Tiwary (18), during his brief stay, tried to rescue the RCB innings, before he too was holed out in the deep trying to pull Yusuf Pathan.
Iqbal Abdulla then struck with the wickets of Mayank Agarwal (13) and Mohammed Kaif (5).
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