KKR turned to top

By winning this match, Kolkata Knight Riders move to top on the points table, although there is another team, Mumbai Indians, and they have a game in hand. Iqbal Abdulla and Yusuf took three big wickets - Adam Gilchrist, Paul Valthaty and David Hussey - for 43 runs in eight overs. Eoin Morgan and Gautam Gambhir, two of the best players of KKR, made sure that the chase was smooth.

After the dismissal of Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh and Abhishek Nayar were run out: Marsh caught and Nayar when trying to take a tight single. At 53 for 4 in the 10th over, Gambhir's captaincy shone through. He was not content with the early wickets. Almost every new batsman walked out to a slip and a silly point. Gambhir himself fielded under the helmet.
 

A 33-run stabilizing stand between Dinesh Karthik and David Hussey threatened much, but in the 15th over Abdulla came back to end. Three overs after he had survived a shout for a lbw, Hussey was given out to a delivery that could have perhaps slid down the leg side. Karthik nudged and swept his means to 42 off 42, but couldn't afford that final kick. Only 33 came off the last five overs, which intended that the run-rate never crossed six an over after it slipped under the smudge in the seventh over.
 

It was a chase that could have simply gone wrong on a difficult track. At least it defenseless to when Jacques Kallis got out to the first ball of left-arm spin of Bhargav Bhatt, who begins the bowling. Morgan, however, took out anything keenness the Punjab side might have had. He judged lengths of the ball early, moved feet decisively, and his 15-ball 28 made sure there was no run-rate pressure on the rest.
 

Gambhir annulled the spinners expertly, viewing his version of quick footwork. Maybe because he is the captain, he was less gaudy than Morgan. He relied on imperative forward, then waiting for the bowler to bowl short for a push into the leg side. If the bowler didn't pitch short, like Piyush Chawla tried, he punished him well over the infield. With support approaching from Manoj Tiwary, the rest was a twilight walk at Eden Gardens.