Ahmedabad: Kolkata Knight Riders limped in their run chase to fall short by 34 runs to hand Rajasthan Royals their opening win of this IPL season at Motera on Saturday.
Chasing 169 to win, Kolkata failed to get going after losing the early wicket of Manoj Tiwary. Brad Hodge and Cheteshwar Pujara added 50 runs for the second wicket but it took too long to come.
The loss of the pair only added up to the pressure, and captain Sourav Ganguly and Owais Shah couldn't accelerate Kolkata towards their target to fall short by a long margin. Rajasthan bowlers played their part too, slowing down the pace of the ball.
Earlier, Australian Adam Voges provided some late sparks to lift Rajasthan Royals to 168-7 against Kolkata Knight Riders
Voges was not out on 37 that included two sixes off the final over, bowled by Ishant Sharma to boost the total after the Royals lost too many wickets in the later stages of their innings. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala was the top-scorer with a fine 45.
Rajasthan were off to a woeful start when opener Michael Lumb was trapped in front of the stumps off the first ball of their innings from Ashok Dinda after Royals captain Shane Warne won the toss and elected to bat.
Faiz Fazal, however, revived the Royals with elegant strokeplay, with the left-hander playing an attractive hand of 31 that included six boundaries. Naman Ojha gave him good company, but the duo failed to carry on, handing the Kolkata bowlers the advantage.
Jhunjhunwala, however, played a solid knock but star batsman Yusuf Pathan's third successive failure after his century in the first game pulled them back. Rajasthan failed to put the ball away to the boundary often enough before Voges' late surge saw them up to a decent total.
Rajasthan have lost all their three matches so far in the tournament while Kolkata have won two and lost one, the last a defeat to Chennai Super Kings.
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