An unbeaten seventh wicket partnership of 57 runs between Laxmi Shukla and Ajit Agarkar helped the Kolkata Knight Riders to a four-wicket victory over the Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League match in Durban on Wednesday.
Chasing 102 for victory, the Knight Riders made heavy weather of their run chase as they collapsed to 45 for six, losing the wickets of Sourav Ganguly (nought) , Brendon McCullum (nine), Yashpal Singh (six) , Brad Hodge (six) , David Hussey (nine) and ShoaibSheikh (six).
But Agarkar joined Shukla and slowly built the partnership that knocked out the defending champions. They brought up their fifty partnership off 42 balls with Man of the Match Shukla ending unbeaten on 48 off 46 balls (3x4's , 2x6's) with good support from Agarkar who ended on 13.
Earlier, Rajasthan made a disappointing 101 for nine after being put into bat.
In a game that the Royals had to win to stand any chance of making the semifinals, they succumbed to the pressure as they lost wickets at regular intervals including three run-outs.
Naman Ojha got the Royals off to a blistering start when he smacked 22 runs off the first over, bowled by spinner Hodge. But it all went downhill from there as Charl Langeveldt, playing his first game of the campaign, ripped through the Royals top order to leave them at 61 for five after 10 overs.
Langeveldt had Rob Quiney caught behind by Sheikh for one run. Swapnil Asnodkar was then brilliantly run out by Ashoke Dinda for four and Ojha was brilliantly caught by Sheikh off Langeveldt for 22.
Ojha was followed by Johan Botha, bowled by Agarkar for eight. Langeveldt then captured his third wicket when he had Niraj Patel caught by Ganguly for 14 to leave the Royals on 61 for five at the strategy break.
Two further run outs of Yusuf Pathan (nine) and Tyron Henderson (nought) left the Royals on 62 for seven, and Ravindra Jadeja (14) and Shane Warne (18) fell with the team total at 92 and 99 respectively.
Munaf Patel, on five, and Amit Singh, on one, were unbeaten in the end.
Langeveldt finished with three for 15, the best figures for the Knight Riders in the tournament.
Kolkata closed out their campaign with two victories in a row but remained at the bottom of the log with only seven points.
The Royals finished in sixth position with 13 points.
iafrica.com's Rob Peters finds himself embracing the hills in his latest Trail Series race.
Heyneke Meyer must be allowed to work unhindered as Springbok coach, writes Rob Peters.
Three races into the Summer Series and Rob Peters is still battling with some technical issues.
