Gambhir lofts Kolkotta to victory

The Kolkotta spinners - Pathan, Abdulla and Shakib bowled superbly to restrict Pune to 118/7 and then a glorious 54 by Gambhir pulled KKR to victory.

Another spineless batting performance by Pune and they lost another match. Yuvraj may be tired after the World Cup effort - he cannot be blamed for that - and Pune is in the doldrums, finishing at the 9th position. Kochi, another new entrant, is at No 6.

Y Pathan scored 29 off 25 balls and Gambhir 54 off 46 balls to pull Kolkotta to victory.

"Bowlers win matches" and the spin trio of Abdulla, Pathan and Shakib took five wickets to devastate the out of form Pune.

Gambhir and Pathan were involved in a 64 run partnership in just 8.1 overs and this proved to be the matchwinning for Kolkotta. Kolkotta will now meet Pune on May 22 at home. Chennai and Banglore lead the IPL Points Table with 18 and 17 points respectively. Punjab has 14 points with one game to go.

Invited to bat first, Pune tottered in a spineless display of batting. It was obvious that 118/7 is not a defendable score !

Yuvi top scored with 24 and now Pune has one more game in hand, as they have to face Punjab, who is on a victory trail.

Kolkotta lost an early wicket when Goswami who fell early in the first over. Tiwary fell in the eighth over, when the score read 53, clean bowled by B Kumar. Then Gambhir and Pathan pulled Kolkotta to victory with a 64 run partnership. They saw to that the Warriors could not make a comeback. Earlier Pune were 17/2 and never recovered after that poor start.

Pandey ( 16), Ferguson ( 16) and Ganguly ( 18) threw away their good starts. So did Uthappa ( 12 ) and Ryder was packed off for one.

Balaji got two wickets in the only over he bowled, that is the final over. Pathan and Shakib bagged two wickets each. Abdulla's arm ball trapped Manish Pandey. Ryder could not stop a sudden rush of blood to the head against Pathan and was caught at midoff !

Ganguly couldnt time the ball and Ferguson pulled Kallis for a four and was let off by the fielder, which gave him a four. Ferguson was out for 16 in the ninth over, when Shakib turned the ball away from his bat and had him stumped. Ganguly lofted Abdulla for six over long on, to raise the 50 of the innings. Uthappa reverse swept Yuvraj for four and was let off by Balaji off Bhatia.

Ganguly swept Shakib into the hands of a diving Pathan and Uthappa tried to slog sweep Pathan and holed out to Lee.

In the last over, Yuvraj was bowled by Balaji, miscuing a swing to the wicket keeper and the match was over. He could only hit two fours and Rana was yorked by Balaji !