21 May, 2008
Royals first into IPL finals

Yusuf Pathan has fired the Rajasthan Royals into the Indian Premier League semi-finals with an unbeaten 48 off 18 balls to fuel a six-wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders.

After Kolkata posted a disappointing 8-147 from its 20 overs, a double-wicket maiden from Umar Gul looked to have turned things in its favour.

But Pathan and Mohammad Kaif (34 off 31) steadied the ship and saw Rajasthan comfortably home.

With nine wins from their 11 games, Shane Warne's Royals are the first team to be assured of a semi-final place, while Kolkata is close to elimination.

Kolkata was in trouble early as Mohammad Hafeez tried to go over the top but only found Swapnil Asnodkar at mid-on off Munaf Patel.

Salman Butt (24 off 20) attempted to up the rate, but was trapped on his crease as Patel claimed his second wicket with a ball that kept low and struck the Pakistan opener on the pad.

Debabrata Das took no time to make his mark, striking a majestic straight six off Warne and pulling an even bigger maximum off a long hop from Pathan, who was promptly given a talking-to by his skipper.

Sourav Ganguly compiled an unusually subdued 32 off 34 before heaving a wide Siddharth Trivedi delivery to Kaif.

Debabrata (31 off 20) was dropped by Shohail Tanvir on the boundary but the Pakistani gained his revenge four balls later with a devastating yorker which rearranged his stumps.

Laxmi Shukla and Ajit Agarkar soon followed and Umar Gul smashed one six before joining them in the final over.

In reply, Asnodkar perished early but Graeme Smith and Tanvir were progressing nicely when Gul struck.

First Tanvir (13 from eight balls) holed out to Butt at mid-on, with the batsmen crossing as the ball was in the air leaving Smith (24 off 24) to face the rest of the over.

He was then the victim of a fine leg-side catch by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha.

Shane Watson (19 off 15) took a liking to Agarkar but was bowled by a jubilant Ganguly, but that was as good as it got for the former India skipper, who was struck for successive sixes by Pathan as Rajasthan rallied.

When Kaif struck three consecutive fours of Dinda, the required rate went down to four an over and Pathan struck Gul for two fours and a six to see the Royals home with three and a half overs to spare.