Kolkata Knight Riders 6-152 (Gautam Gambhir 50, Ryan ten Doeschate 31, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3-25) beat Pune Warriors 106 (Angelo Mathews 40, Robin Uthappa 31, Lakshmipathy Balaji 3-19) by 46 runs.

Gautam Gambhir led Kolkata Knight Riders from the front by smashing a fifty and his bowlers ripped through the batting of Pune Warriors who lost another game.

Kolkata Knight Riders scored 152 runs with four wickets left after utilising the full quota of 20 overs and the innings of Pune Warriors was folded back for 106 mere runs with three balls still remaining.

Gautam Gambhir (Kolkata Knight Riders) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his dedicated innings of 50.

The 56^th match of the Indian Premier League was held on Thursday, May 9, 2013, at Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune.

Earlier, Gautam Gambhir, the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, won the toss and came in to bat with great confidence along with Manvinder Bisla. Gambhir started off with 5 fours in the early overs and Bisla got two as the score touched 44 after five overs. Bisla was smartly stumped by Mahesh Rawat off Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 12 and Jacques Kallis became the next victim after scoring just two runs. Eoin Morgan walked in next as Gambir carried on cruising from the other end while the score was taken to 75 in 11.4 overs. Morgan was gone for 15 and was replaced by Ryan ten Doeschate who opened his account with a single on the third ball he faced.

Gautam Gambhir attained his fifth fifty of the tournament on the second ball of the 14^th over but was caught by Angelo Mathews off Mitchell Marsh for 50 off 44 with 6 fours. Yusuf Pathan scored three runs as Manoj Tiwary appeared in the centre and ten Doeschate hit 2 back to back fours in the 17^th over. The pair added a few more boundaries before Ryan ten Doeschate was caught by Krishnakant Upadhyay at short fine leg off Kumar for 31 off 21 with 1 six and 3 fours. Tiwary held his end for 13 as Kolkata Knight Riders reached 152 for the loss of six wickets in 20 overs.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the highest wicket taker with three, Mitchell Marsh got two whereas Parvez Rasool claimed one wicket.

The innings of Pune Warriors was opened by Robin Uthappa and his skipper Aaron Finch briskly by scoring 19 runs in the first three overs. Finch was clean bowled by Jacques Kallis for just five runs as the total touched 20 in 2.4 overs and Yuvraj Singh was caught behind by Manvinder Bisla off Lakshmipathy Balaji for one after the addition of three runs to the total. Uthappa was consolidating whereas the incoming batsman Udit Birla surrendered for seven runs. Robin Uthappa kept on struggling but was finally caught by Gambhir off Iqbal Abdulla for 31 off 35 with 2 fours.

Angelo Mathews dropped in next and dispatched a couple of sixes but the wickets kept on sliding at the other end. He added another 2 big consecutive sixes in the 16^th over but was caught at long on by Tiwary off Sunil Narine for 40 off 28 with 4 giant sixes. None of the remaining batsmen could enter the double figures and the entire home team was bowled out for 106 runs in 19.3 overs.

Lakshmipathy Balaji was the supreme bowler with three wickets, Iqbal Abdulla, Jacques Kallis and Sunil Narine shared two wickets each whereas Rajat Bhatia held one wicket.

Kolkata Knight Riders clinched the game with a vast margin of 46 runs and added two points to their table.

The Present standing of the two teams in the tournament is as follows:

Kolkata Knight Riders – 10 points from 13 games – 7^th position on the table.

Pune Warriors              – 4 points from 13 games  – 9^th position on the table.