Kolkata crushes Rajasthan Royals

It’s not happened often in this season’s Indian Premier League, but yesterday at Eden Gardens against Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders put up the kind of performance that made them so tough to beat last season, winning by eight wickets in a one-sided encounter.
The Rajasthan innings, after they won the toss and batted, was easily summed up by three talking points – Kolkata’s bowling, Sanju Samson’s innings and Rahul Dravid’s decision to keep himself away from the crease till the fourth ball of the final over.
On the night, the pitch being used was inert and Kolkata, predicting that possibility, had packed their XI with slow bowlers. They all played their part to restrict Rajasthan to 132 for 6.
Sumit Narwal, the Delhi medium pacer, was patchy and bowled only two overs, but Sunil Narine, Sachithra Senanayeke, Rajat Bhatia and Jacques Kallis were all on the spot. The delivery Senanayeke had Ajinkya Rahane stumped with was the pick of the lot – it was flighted, dipped to fool Rahane and turned sufficiently to beat the bat.
But Narine was the star, and in his first over, the 11th of innings, he made Shane Watson appear amateurish. Watson flailed at thin air before being dismissed lbw off the fifth delivery. Gautam Gambhir had the liberty to use Narine as and when he wanted, and though he picked just the one wicket, Narine went for only 20 runs in his four overs.
If Narine was the bowling hero, Samson did his growing reputation no harm by scoring a 36-ball 40 that was aggressive in patches and so sensible at other times that he belied his 18 years. Samson hit the only two sixes in the Rajasthan innings but figured out early enough that the pitch was not made for big hitting. He rotated the strike well, losing his patience only toward the end.
Dravid, meanwhile, chose to watch the proceedings from the dugout as James Faulkner, Samson, Dishant Yagnik, Owais Shah and Stuart Binny all went in ahead of him. Was it because he didn’t trust himself to score quickly or was there a bigger game plan? In the end, he faced only three balls, collecting a four and a two off them.
Kolkata needed to plan their reply smartly and they got a good start courtesy Gambhir and Bisla, who added 41. Watson then beat Gambhir outside the off stump and though the back foot barely left the crease for a split second, that was enough for Yagnik to whip off the bails with a spectacular piece of glovework.
Rajasthan left out Ajit Chandila, who has an economy rate of 5.73 this season, and brought in Brad Hogg and Ankeet Chavan. Hogg and Chavan both conceded nine an over and while Bisla and Kallis batted smartly, it was Yusuf Pathan – whose unbeaten 49 off 35 balls contained three fours and three sixes – who ensured that Kolkata crossed the line with 16 balls to spare.