Sourav Ganguly inspires Kolkata to victory

Kolkata Knight Riders have been accused of several things over the past three seasons, and two members of the current squad chose the cauldron of the Eden Gardens to try and silence one of those accusations. This side hasn't always been able to thump the ball over the infield but tonight Sourav Ganguly's second highest IPL score and a well-paced 31 from David Hussey oversaw a nervous period and pumped up Kolkata for a late surge.

From the time he put away the first ball of the game away to the boundary off his hips, and cut the third one past point, Ganguly looked the best he's been this year. But as has often happened, his side were jolted early and despite some wayward bowling, Deccan had kept Kolkata to 46 for 2 after the Powerplays.

Ganguly broke the shackles against Kemar Roach with a lovely lofted six over mid-on, judging the length and hitting on the rise, and followed up next ball with a delicate dab to third man for four. He then played a lovely steer for four, timing Rohit Sharma's offspin expertly between a strong off-side field.

Sadly for Ganguly, support was not forthcoming until Hussey arrived after Manoj Tiwary fell to a needless shot, reaching out to Ojha and sweeping against the turn only to drag the ball onto his stumps. Ganguly batted on purposely, collecting boundaries both sides of square off the erratic Harmeet Singh, and reached his second fifty of the tournament by putting an Ojha full toss away for six. Kolkata's scoring rate dipped slightly as Hussey indulged in some sensible single-hunting instead of risky shots, but Ganguly did well to keep it from slipping too far with the odd poached boundary. Only in two overs of their crucial alliance was a four not hit. At 116 for 3 after 15 overs, Kolkata had set themselves up for a final push.

Hussey got it going with a straight six off Symonds, moving from 11 from 16 balls to 17 from 17, and received a life when Adam Gilchrist muffed a simple stumping off Ojha. In the same over Ganguly sent the Eden faithful into raptures with three slogged sixes.