Ganguly flourish leads Knights to emphatic win over Royals

Kolkata: Skipper Sourav Ganguly played a marvellous unconquered knock as he piloted Kolkata Knight Riders to an emphatic eight-wicket victory against the Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match here Saturday, overcoming initial hiccups.

After restricting the Royals to a modest 132/9, the Knight Riders lost two early wickets but Ganguly (75 not out off 50 balls) scored his fourth half century of the tournament and alongside Cheteshwar Pujara (45 not out off 38 balls) first steadied the ship with some responsible batting before going full blast.

The duo added 111 for the unfinished third wicket stand as the Knight Riders reached the winning target of 133 with 3.5 overs to spare before a capacity crowd at the Eden Gardens, thereby also keeping alive their chances of a semifinal berth, with 12 points from 13 games.

The Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise are now sixth, and need to win their last round robin outing against the league's best side Mumbai Indians by a big margin at home Monday and then hope for some favourable results in the other games.

Scorecard | IPL 2010

Image:Sourav Ganguly of Kolkata Knight Riders raises his bat after scoring a half century.

Text: Ians

Images: Getty