Ganguly steers Kolkata home

Sourav Ganguly starred in the field and with the bat to help Kolkata to a crucial eight-wicket win against Rajasthan. His brilliant effort to get rid of Yusuf Pathan was among the best catches in the tournament, running back several yards from midwicket, keeping his eyes on the ball and falling full stretch to hold on.

Kolkata needed an attacking start in their pursuit of a big win to propel their net run-rate, but were deprived by the early loss of Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle. Ganguly had warmed up well with three boundaries, but Kamran Khan's double-strike in the third over - he snared McCullum with a full toss and bowled Gayle through the gate - prompted a change in approach with Kolkata opting for a game of caution, postponing their acceleration. Each of the next five overs featured a boundary, but only 22 were scored off them as most balls, barring the bad ones that were dispatched, were pushed towards fielders inside the circle.

The quest to pierce the field and hunt for more singles was evident in the first couple of overs following the time-out, and it was in the 12th over that Ganguly displayed the belated aggression, making room and charging down the track to strike Yusuf for two boundaries. He and Cheteshwar Pujara then followed up with a six each in the next over from Voges. Ganguly hammered consecutive fours off Siddharth Trivedi and helped smote 15 in Faiz Fazal's only over to help Kolkata past their target with 23 balls to spare.