May 27, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1429

KOLKATA, May 26: Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Saurav Ganguly came out firing all guns to score an unbeaten 86, while Umar Gul chipped in with a brilliant all-round performance to help their team clinch a thrilling three-wicket win against Kings XI Punjab here at the Eden Gardens on Sunday night.

The hosts got their much needed face-saving victory before bowing out of the Indian Premier League.

Chasing 175, Kolkata had almost accepted their defeat, when Man-of-the-Match — Umar Gul walked in to join Ganguly in the middle with six wicket down and all recognized batsmen back in the pavilion.

Umar (24; 11 balls, 1x4, 3x6) along with Ganguly (86; 53 balls, 6x4, 6x6), who stood his ground right throughout the innings, stole 49 runs during their seventh wicket stand to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with two balls to spare, leaving the Mohali side in a state of shock.

After losing their sixth wicket in the form of Aakash Chopra with the scorecard reading a miserable 106-6 in 15.3 overs, Ganguly started to take his chances and was ably supported by Umar.

In a Piyush Chawla’s over, the former India captain took 18 runs, hitting two towering sixes to give a glimpse of hope to the home crowd, before he and Umar managed to take another 16 runs of a Sreesanth’s over to bring Kolkata right back on track.

Although, V.R.V. Singh gave the much-needed breakthrough to Mohali by sending off Umar in the penultimate over but by then the Bengal southpaw was in a mood to finish it off.

Taking the responsibly, he denied the new batsman Ishant Sharma from taking a run in the last ball of the 19th over in order to keep the strike.

With 15 runs needed in the last over, Yuvraj brought in Irfan Pathan but Ganguly was determined to go for the kill and with two massive sixes, a two and a one, he handed out the formidable Mohali a defeat in 19.4 overs.

With Mohali already having booked a place in the last four of the IPL, a confident batting line-up toyed with Kolkata’s bowling after they opted to bat first earlier.

Mohali batsmen dominated the proceeding with Kumar Sangakkara hitting his fourth IPL fifty and Shaun Marsh scoring 40 to pile up 174-6 in their allotted 20 overs.

In reply, Kolkata openers — Ganguly and Salman Butt — put on a fine 45-run partnership in 5.2 overs, yet they never looked in the contention as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals thereafter.

However, they once again bounced back in the last four over.

Earlier, Sangakkara smashed a superb 45-ball 64 with seven fours and two sixes, besides putting on a 83-run partnership in 57 deliveries with Marsh for the second wicket as they sent the fielders on a leather hunt, while Kolkata made a mess of it all

on the field with a number of dropped catches and sloppy fielding.

It was the lone bowler in Umar Gul (4-23), who had some success against the visitors but even he failed to pose much of a threat, expect for in the last over when he took two wickets in consecutive balls to return Irfan Pathan (7) and Chawla (0) to restrict Mohali reaching nearer to 200-run mark.

In the last over, Umar conceded only four runs besides taking two wickets to put some brakes.

Summarised scores:

KINGS XI PUNJAB 174-6 in 20 overs (Kumar Sangakkara 64, Shaun Marsh 40, Yuvraj Singh 27; Umar Gul 4-23); KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS 175-7 in 19.4 overs (Saurav Ganguly 86 not out, Salman Butt 24, Umar Gul 24; V.R.V. Singh 2-28, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth 2-33, Piyush Chawla 2-36).—Agencies