Angelo Mathews returned with a four-wicket haul as a disciplined Kolkata Knight Riders notched up their second successive win, beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets in the third Indian Premier League on Sunday.
Cheered on by Shah Rukh Khan at the jam-packed Eden Gardens, Knight Riders first restricted the Royal Challengers at 135 for seven and then rode on half centuries by Manoj Tiwary (50) and Brad Hodge (50) to overhaul the target with four balls to spare.
Having excelled with the bat against defending champions Deccan Chargers in their last match, Sri Lankan all-rounder Mathews this time ripped the Royal Challengers apart with four for 19 to become the destroyer-in-chief.
The medium-pacer was brilliantly supported by left-arm spinner Murali Kartik as Knight Riders prevailed from the beginning.
Chasing 136 to win, Knight Riders had a flying start with Tiwary and Hodge milking the Royal Challengers bowlers as they cruised to 85 for no loss in 10 overs.
Kumble used five bowlers in the first 10 overs but they failed to get a breakthrough with Tiwary and Hodge on fire.
The duo did not let Kumble's opening bowling pair of Praveen Kumar and Jacques Kallis to settle as he brought in himself and Dale Steyn but without any success.
RCB even struggled on the field and failed to bring in an easy run out in the 3.2 overs when Tiwary had some problem in his ankle and struggled to go for a second run.
Steyn had a brilliant throw from the rope but stumper Goswami and Dravid made a mess of it with Kallis and Kumble looking aghast at the other end.
Tiwary, however, wasn't complaining as he continued his assault smashing ace leg-spinner Kumble for 15 from eight balls including three boundaries as he cruised to 50 in 28 balls before being caught and bowled by Roelf van der Merwe.
With Knight Riders 101 for one in 11.4 overs, Ganguly joined Hodge in the middle but the agony for the Royals Challengers continued with butter-fingered Goswami dropping Ganguly when he was yet to open his account.
Hodge, in the mean time, completed his half-century and soon found himself caught by Manish Pandey off the bowling of van der Merwe as Cheteshwar Pujara joined Ganguly in the middle.
Looking to complete the formality with three runs remaining, Ganguly found himself dismissed by Praveen Kumar. The ace southpaw scored 23 runs facing 22 balls with one boundary and one six in his knock.
Earlier put into bat, Jacques Kallis anchored the RCB innings with a defiant 65 not out off 52 balls that included six boundaries.
Ray Jenning's tactics of banking on rookie Indian youngsters in batting misfired as the trio of Shreevats Goswami (8), Manish Pandey (0) and Virat Kohli (2) could only manage 10 runs.
Charl Langeveldt and Ishant Sharma tested Goswami, who opened the innings with Kallis, with pace and bounce. The stumper couldn't negotiate the short deliveries and soon became a victim of the former caught at third man.
Manish Pandey also departed in no time as RCB slided to 17 for two. In desperation to open his account, Pandey (0) dragged one onto his stumps as Mathews got his first wicket in his third ball.
Left-arm spinner Kartik then scalped two wickets from his two overs as Royal challengers were tottering at 35 for four.
Kartik first scalped Kohli (2) as he charged down the track only to find Mathews near the rope. English recruit Eoin Morgan was the next to go as in his pursuit for a reverse sweep he was castled by Kartik.
Opener Kallis, however, remained unruffled at the other end as he along with another veteran Rahul Dravid tried to make some repair work.
But thinking skipper Ganguly brought in Mathews again and he dismissed Dravid who inside-edged a low full toss to see his team slip to 73 for five.
The duo yielded 38 runs for the fifth wicket as Dravid departed for 21 from 16 balls with three fours.
With Ganguly rotating his bowlers, boundaries dried up and Mathews took two more wickets in Robin Uthappa (20) and Roelof van der Merwe (1) in his last over to emerge as the wrecker-in-chief.
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