KOLKATA, May 20: Kolkata Knight Riders could never gain the kind of momentum needed to put up a challenging total against Jaipur in their grudge Indian Premier League match at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday.

Needing a win to stay in contention for a semi-final berth, the home side could only muster 147-8 after being put in to bat in front of a full house.

Saurav Ganguly would have been wanting to put up a good show, especially after his spat with Warne after their last match, but his batsmen did not give him much to cheer about.Kolkata were rattled early on as Munaf Patel removed the Pakistani opening pair of Mohammad Hafeez (4) and Salman Butt (24). Patel had Hafeez caught at mid-on in his first over after having just failed to take a return catch, and then trapped Salman lbw with a fine delivery that came in sharply at the left-hander.

David Hussey and Ganguly fell in trying to force the pace and the team was reduced to 95-4 in the 15th over. The other batsmen threw their bats around but could not get the better of a bowling attack that has slowly but surely proved to be one of the best on view in the tournament.

If Patel did the trick early on, left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir ensured there was no fight-back from the home side, finishing with 3-26 that included the important scalps of Laxmi Rattan Shukla and Debabrata Das.

Jaipur are on top of the points table after winning eight of their 10 matches while Kolkata have won just five of 11.

In their previous encounter at Jaipur, the home side had scored an easy 45-run victory.—Agencies