May 19, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 13, 1429

KOLKATA, May 18: A superb knock of 73 by stylish Pakistan opener Salman Butt went in vain as Kokata Knight Riders fell to Chennai Super Kings by just three runs after Duckworth-Lewis method was applied in the rain interrupted IPL match at Eden Gardens. Openers Parthiv Patel and Stephen Fleming, with the help of some sloppy fielding by the hosts, rushed to a 50-run partnership in 47 balls.

Earlier, South African pacer Makhaya Ntini came up with a fine hat-trick to restrict the Kolkata Knight Riders to a modest 149 for 5 in their crucial Indian Premier League match against Chennai Super Kings. The 30-year-old bowler got rid of Knight Riders skipper Sourav Ganguly with the last ball of his third over, before he was taken off the attack by stand-in skipper Stephen Fleming, who called the shots as regular captain MS Dhoni retired to the dressing room with an injured finger.

Ntini came back in the 17th over and immediately struck a double blow, by showing the door to Debabrata Das (27) and David Hussey (0) with his first two balls, to complete the third hat-trick of the tourney after pacer L Balaji and leg spinner Amit Mishra. He finished with highly impressive figures of 4-0-21-4.

For the Knight Riders, Pakistani left-hander Salman Butt (73) deftly anchored the innings after the hosts lost two early wickets, and steadied the ship by putting on 86 runs for the third wicket alongside the young Debabrata Das. Ntini broke the rollicking stand by getting Das bowled with a low full toss, as the Knight Riders were reduced to 114 for 3 in 16.1 overs.

The Knight Riders received further setback as Ntini welcomed the dangerous Hussey with an angled delivery, which the Australian played across the line and saw his off-stump go cartwheeling. The twin blows threw a spanner in the Knight Riders’ bid to post a big total, and in the end they could only set an asking rate of 7.50 runs for the visitors.

Salman Butt, who delighted the crowd with delectable shots all round the park, departed a over after Ntini’s feat that had initially gone unnoticed with even the official scorer missing it.

The Knight Riders yet again made a bumpy start losing their first two wickets within the opening five overs on a track which played slow initially but eased out as the innings progressed. Ntini got the first breakthrough in his second over as opener Mohammed Hafeez (6) failed to keep a flick down and Manpreet Gony had little difficulty in taking the catch at fine leg.

Skipper Ganguly (2), looking tentative from the start, survived only eight balls. The Prince of Kolkata went for a mighty heave without going behind the line of the ball and played too early to see his middle stump knocked down as the Knight Riders slumped to 28 for 2 after five overs. Ganguly’s aggression seemed needless as Salman had picked up two back-to-back boundaries earlier in the over.—Agencies