Shahrukh's Knight Riders Won Final Battle

Skipper Sourav Ganguly (86*) led from the front to beat Kings XI Punjab by three wickets in their Indian Premier League tie at the Eden Gardens.

Chasing 176 runs, Kolkata got off to a good start until Sreesanth rocked Salman Butt and Debabrata Das in his successive deliveries. Butt contributed 24 runs in 18 balls while Das returned without scoring.

David Hussey (12) continued his poor form against the spin bowling. Piyush Chawla rocked his middle stump comprehensively. Laxmi Shukla too did not last long and lost his timber to VRV Singh in the 10th over.

Earlier, Kings XI Punjab rode on rollicking knocks by Kumar Sangakkara (64) and Shaun Marsh (40) to pile up 174 for 6 in their Indian Premier League tie against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday.

Coming together after the early loss of James Hopes, Marsh and Sangakkara added a brisk 83 runs of only 57 deliveries to put their side in the drivers' seat before a crowd of 30,000 at the Eden Gardens.

Sangakkara was especially brilliant, letting loose several delicate shots all over the park earning huge applause from the spectators, who relished every minute of his brilliant batting.

Marsh, one of the principal scorers of the tourney, executed some power-packed shots before holing out to long off, giving Sri Lankan off spinner Ajantha Mendis his first wicket of the IPL on his debut.

Umar Gul (4/23), the pick of the Knight Riders bowlers, finally got rid of Sangakkara, as the Sri Lankan played across the line to a delivery that pitched on the good length spot and came further in and rapped the willower on the pad, as the visitors became 133 for 3.

Yuvraj Singh then played a cameo, adding 31 runs with Mahela Jayawardene (11 not out) before the former got run out following a horrible mix up.

The Kings XI seemed well positioned for a 180 plus total, as they reached 170 for 4 after the penultimate over, but Gul's superlative bowling at the death restricted them to a run rate of 8.7 per over. Gul not only conceded only four runs, but also was on a hat-trick, as he picked up Irfan Pathan (7) and Piyush Chawla (0) of back-to-back deliveries. It was left to Tanmay Srivastava to thwart Gul's feat.

Young pacer Ishant Sharma, a find for the Indian team during their tour to Australia earlier this year, once again was lacklustre conceding 49 runs in his quota of four overs.