Hyderabad, May 11: Venugopal Rao’s valiant knock of 71 off 41 balls went in vain as Kolkata Knight Riders registered their second successive victory when they beat beleaguered Deccan Chargers by 24 runs. The win could be attributed to captain Ganguly’s all-round performance (91 runs and 2 wickets) and Dinda’s(3/33) excellent bowling.

Just when Rohit Sharma (33) was threatening to get Deccan to out of danger he fell to the same combination of Ashok Dinda and Saurav Ganguly. Dinda, who claimed Gilly and Gibbs in his first spell, this time, got another important man.

Ganguly has struck gold again for Knight Riders as he sent Scott Styris (5) packing. Styris holed out at deep mid wicket by Laxmiratan Shukla. Deccan were 70/4 after 9 overs.

Knight Rider Ashok Dinda has done it again! After sending dangerous Gibbs to the Deccan dug-out, Dinda induced a missed-timed pull from Gilchrist only to be caught at short mid-wicket by Ganguly. Gilchrist was looking in ominous touch during his short but entertaining innings of 24. Umar Gull also joined the party as he sent Ravi Teja packing with his very first ball.

New pace sensation Ashok Dinda drew first blood for Kolkata Knight Riders as he sent dangerous Herschelle Gibbs (4) packing in the third over of the match. After 3 overs, Deccan Chargers were 17 for the loss of one wicket with Adam Gilchrist playing on 6.

Riding on some superb attacking batting by Sourav Ganguly (91 off 57 balls) and David Hussey (unbeaten 57 off 29 balls) Kolkata Knight Riders rake up a mammoth 204 for the loss of 4 wickets. Both the batsmen were severe on all the Deccan bowlers, tonking fours and sixes at will.

David Hussey slammed a blistering half century (52 off 24 balls) to power Riders to 175/3 after 18.1 overs. He along with Ganguly (91 off 57 balls) carted every bowler out of the park. But unfortunately Ganguly failed to hit century trying to smash another ball out of the park.

Saurav Ganguly has helped his team set a solid platform from where they can build a mammoth total. After 16 overs, they were 136/2 with Ganguly was plying on 84 off 53 balls with 11 fours and 4 huge sixes.

Captain Suarav Ganguly smashed his second fifty of the tournament as he completed this important half century off just 38 balls consisting of 10 hits to the fence. After 13 overs, Kolkata were 89 for loss of two wickets.

Aakash Chopra’s (24 off 23 balls) agony in the middle came to an end as he ran himself out after having an terrible mix-up with captain Saurav Ganguly. Chopra never looked comfortable throughout his innings, looking out of sort in this newest format of the game. His departure brought David Hussey onto the crease. Knight Riders were 76 for loss of two wickets after 11 overs.

Kolkata Knight Riders leapfrogged to 50 in 7.3 overs after having lost an early wicket in the form of Salman Butt. Riders’ captain Saurav Ganguly (40 n.o) was going great guns as he carted eight fours in his entertaining knock.

Comeback man Chaminda Vaas struck off his third ball of the first over when he sent Salman Butt on a long walk to the pavilion. Vaas had Butt caught behind into the safe hands of Adam Gilchrist after the Pakistan opener struck a cracking boundary off the left arm seamer.

The news from the centre is that Sourav Ganguly, the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders, won the toss and chose to bat first on a dry pitch which looked suitable for batting.

The surprise exclusion for Deccan Chargers was Shahid Afridi whereas Brad Hodge was missing for the Riders as he left on international duty.

Kolkata Knight Riders innings: Salman Butt c Gilchrist b Vaas 4, A Chopra run out (Gibbs) 24, SC Ganguly c Singh b Vijaykumar 91, DJ Hussey not out 57, T Taibu c Ravi Teja b Singh 9, LR Shukla not out 14 Extras: (lb 1, w 3, nb 1) 5 Total: (4 wickets; 20 overs) 204 (10.20 runs per over) FOW: 1-4, 2-73, 3-175, 4-190 Bowling:WPUJC Vaas 3-0-36-1, DP Vijaykumar 3-0-21-1, SB Styris 3-0-28-0, RP Singh 4-0-59-1, Y Venugopal Rao 4-0-24-0, SB Bangar 1-0-10-0, PP Ojha 2-0-25-0

Deccan Chargers innings: AC Gilchrist c Ganguly b Dinda 24, HH Gibbs c Salman Butt b Dinda 5, DB Ravi Teja c Saha b Umar Gul 10, RG Sharma c Ganguly b Dinda 33, SB Styris c Shukla b Ganguly 5, Y Venugopal Rao not out 71, SB Bangar c Chopra b Ganguly 2, WPUJC Vaas b Shukla 9, RP Singh not out 6 Extras: (lb 8, w 4, nb 4) 16 Total: (7 wickets; 20 overs) 181 (9.05 runs per over) FOW: 1-12, 2-41, 3-41, 4-63, 5-95, 6-123, 7-161 Bowling: AB Dinda 4-0-33-3, I Sharma 3-0-27-0, Umar Gul 4-0-43-1, SC Ganguly 4-0-25-2, M Kartik 3-0-29-0, LR Shukla 2-0-16-1