Kolkata Knight Riders sealed the second place in the points table with a crushing 34-run victory over Pune Warriors in their final group league encounter of the Indian Premier League in Pune.
Defending a small total of 136 on a difficult pitch, Kolkata spinners restricted Pune Warriors to a paltry 102 for eight in stipulated 20 overs.
While Kolkata with 21 points will get a maximum of two matches in the play-offs to qualify, the Pune led by Sourav Ganguly hit a new low losing nine consecutive matches -- a record in the IPL. If Deccan Chargers manage to win the last match, Pune will finish last in the points table.
The Knight Riders' spinners did a commendable job as all of them shared the spoils. Shakib Al Hasan (2/28 & 42 runs) was man-of-the-match with his all-round show while Yusuf Pathan (2/12), Iqbal Abdulla (1/20), Sunil Narine (2/15) everyone chipped in with crucial wickets.
The ability to fight was simply not there in Warriors whose campaign was rocked primarily due to poor form of their skipper who had one of the worst strike-rates (less than 100) for a top-order batsman in T20 cricket.
The target of 137 wasn't big enough but the slowness of the track with some sharp turn definitely made things difficult for the home team whose confidence had already hit nadir. With two left-arm spinners and two off-spinners in the Kolkata line-up, it became a Herculean task for Warriors batsmen to negotiate.
Robin Uthappa's horrible IPL ended with a tame catch at covers of left-arm spinner Abdulla's bowling. Michael Clarke was stumped off Yusuf Pathan's bowling.
Jesse Ryder (22) hit couple of huge sixes but tried a cross batted shot to an off-break to get bowled. The bowler was Pathan.
Skipper Ganguly (5), who is still undecided about whether he should call it quits after his worst IPL season padded a straighter one. With four wickets down within first 11 overs, it wasn't an easy job for the inexperienced Warriors batsmen to negotiate quality spin-attack.
Earlier, some disciplined bowling effort by Pune helped them restrict Kolkata to 136 for four.
Brendon McCullum (41) and Shakib (42) added 67 runs for the third wicket in 7.3 overs on a track where stroke making was difficult but still it looked that Kolkata were 20 runs short.
For Pune, left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell was the pick of the bowlers with impressive figures of two for 18 while Bhuveneshwar Kumar and Michael Clarke also got a wicket each.
Kolkata's in-form captain Gautam Gambhir was out early when he failed to clear the mid-on fielder off Parnell's bowling. The opening pair managed only 21 in 4.3 overs.
McCullum and Jacques Kallis (13) couldn't up the ante on a pitch where the ball wasn't exactly coming on to the bat. A desperate Kallis tried to hit the left-arm spin of Clarke inside-out but only managed to bottom-edge it onto the stumps.
Then McCullum-Shakib partnership started. The right-left combination did nudge singles and twos as Kolkata crawled to 45 for two in the first 10 overs.
It was the 12th over of the innings when McCullum who was playing sedately cut loose hitting a couple of boundaries.
In the next over, Shakib hit Clarke for two huge sixes and in between those two shots was dropped by Parnell in the deep mid-wicket.
The 100 came up in the 15th over with 56 being scored in between overs 11th and 15th.
However once McCullum was gone trying to clear extra cover, the scoring rate dipped once again. Shakib who was playing was bowled by Bhuveneshwar's yorker.
Yusuf Pathan (15 n.o.) and Manoj Tiwary (8 n.o.) couldn't produce much fireworks in the final few overs as it looked that Kolkata are 20 runs short.
