Hussey sees Kolkata home

David Hussey's unbeaten 38 carried Kolkata home with an over to spare at Eden Gardens

Kolkata Knight Riders clinched their second Indian Premier League victory in an entertaining but low-scoring affair against Deccan Chargers at Eden Gardens.

The Chargers were dismissed for a meagre 110 from just 18.4 overs after winning the toss and opting to bat first on a surface described by Andrew Symonds as “disgraceful”.

Symonds top-scored for the visitors with 32 from 39 balls, while his Australia team-mate Adam Gilchrist hit a breezy 23 from 22.

The Knight Riders’ response started far from smoothly, with the first three batsmen falling in the first five overs.

But they eked out enough runs to edge past their target, with 38 not out from David Hussey seeing them home with an over to spare.

Opener Venugopal Rao was the first to fall in the fourth over of the Chargers’ innings, caught by Murali Kartik at gully off Ishant Sharma for 14, and VVS Laxman followed in the next over when he offered a simple opportunity off Ashok Dinda to Laxmi Shukla at mid-off.

Gilchrist holed out to Mohammad Hafeez at long leg off Kartik, and three balls later Kartik accounted for Rohit Sharma, who got an inside edge to wicketkeeper Prasanta Saha.

New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris was undone by a change of pace from Hafeez, while Arjun Yadav contributed a run-a-ball 10 before smashing delivery to Dinda at long-off.

Ajit Agarkar brought about the end of Symonds’ fine knock when the Australia all-rounder went for one big shot too many and only succeeded in finding Hussey at mid-off.

Chaminda Vaas, Sanjay Bangar and Pragyan Ojha then perished in the space of six balls to bring the innings to a premature close.

The Knight Riders’ innings got off to an equally shaky start, with Brendon McCullum dismissed for just five.

The New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman, who struck the highest individual Twenty20 score of 158 off just 73 balls in the win over Bangalore Royal Challengers in the tournament opener on Friday - was caught by Rohit at point off RP Singh in the second over.

Ricky Ponting’s poor form in India continued when he was trapped lbw by Vaas without scoring, and Vaas’ next over saw the end of opener Saha, who found Styris at mid-off.

Hussey and Sourav Ganguly put on 47 for the fourth wicket before the latter was bowled by Ojha for 14.

Ojha saw off Hafeez for 13 in the 17th, tempting him into a reverse sweep that was well held by Symonds.