Knight Riders beat Bangalore

Hodge: Scored half-century

Kolkata Knight Riders delivered a solid all-round display to claim a seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Royal Challengers, last year's runners-up in the IPL, were held to a measly 135-7 from their 20 overs, 65 of those runs coming from Jacques Kallis.

Sri Lankan Angelo Mathews was the pick of the Kolkata bowlers with 4-19 having starred with the bat in their opening win over Deccan.

Openers Manoj Tiwary (50) and Brad Hodge (50) both notched up half-centuries, adding 101 for the opening wicket as the Knight Riders eased to their the target with four deliveries to spare.

Dominant

The home side were dominant from the off, with Charl Langeveldt striking in his second over, disposing of opener Shreevats Goswami (eight).

Captain Sourav Ganguly then rang the bowling changes, with everything falling into place for the former India batsman.

Mathews removed Manish Pandey in his first over for a seven-ball duck, while left-arm spinner Murali Kartik took out Virat Kohli in his first over and struck again to renove debutant Eoin Morgan for 10.

The Royal Challengers scraped 24 from the first six overs and had crashed to 35-4 when the tempo was briefly boosted by the arrival of Rahul Dravid (21).

Mathews, however, returned to get rid of the experienced Indian right-hander before then removing Robin Uthappa (20) and Roelof van der Merwe to extinguish any hopes of a big score for the visitors.

Despite the heroics from Kallis, who cracked his half-century in 47 deliveries, the Royal Challengers were left with a poor total to defend.

Openers Hodge and Tiwary posted a scorching first-wicket stand which yielded 101 to slice that target down to just 35 from 8.2 overs.

Tiwary dispatched Kallis for two boundaries and a six in the South African's second over, while compatriot Dale Steyn received similarly harsh treatment.

Anil Kumble was hammered for consecutive boundaries in his first over, the last of the powerplay, by which time Hodge had also found his feet.

The Royal Challengers did push the game to the final over, but it was too little too late as the Knight Riders closed out a comfortable victory.