Kolkata, May 20: Yusuf Pathan played a scorcher, Mohammad Kaif supported him well and together, they ensured Rajasthan Royals registered their ninth win of the Indian Premier League, this time at the expense of Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday.

It's now all but over for the Knight Riders who slumped to a six-wicket loss after yet another uninspiring performance. It was their fourth straight defeat.

Royals' journey to glory was not a smooth one. They were 42/3 after Graeme Smith (24, 24b), who was in a mood to turn the screws, was wrongly given out in the sixth over.

Then Sourav Ganguly castled Shane Watson (19) and the visitors were reduced to 69/4.

But an unbeaten 81-run partnership between Pathan and Kaif saw the Royals were home and dry with 21 balls to spare.

Pathan launched the rout with 17 runs in Ganguly's second over and remained unbeaten on 48 (18b, 5x4, 3x6) with a strike rate of 266-plus. Most of hits were genuine cricket shots.

Kaif was happy to play second fiddle and still scored at better than a run a ball for his 34 not out.

Knight Riders had a chance when Kaif was way short of his ground going for an impossible single. But Laxmi Ratan Shukla missed the opportunity and dropped the match.

Earlier, Knight Riders ended with a reasonable 147/8 in 20 overs after Shane Warne put them in on a good wicket.

It could have been worse without Debarata Das (31, 20b) who introduced himself with a towering six off the master leg-spinner. The ball was lost and the bowler was stunned.

In fact, Das was the only one who showed any real intention of taking on the bowling. With David Hussey (11) getting out cheaply, someone had to take the initiative and the boy from Siliguri tried.

His captain at the other end was playing an innings that was beyond explanation. Ganguly scored 32 off 34 balls and apart from a six off Warne never looked comfortable.

He took seven balls to get off the mark as his counterpart played mind games.

Maybe Ganguly was trying to anchor the innings. But a wild slog from outside the off stump, that ended in Kaif's hands at long-on, showed that he was somewhat at a loss when it came to forcing the pace.

Shah Rukh Khan was not in the stadium let alone the dugout or the dressing room and the Knight Riders appeared a disjointed lot.

The turnout was poor by Eden's standards. So there was not much encouragement from the stands either.

The hosts stuttered almost all the way through their innings. Mohammad Hafeez (4) failed yet again despite a life life in the second over when Munaf Patel (2/22) could not hold on to a caught and bowled chance. He was still the pick of the bowlers with his impeccable line and length and subtle change of pace. He accounted for both openers.

Sohail Tanvir (3/26) was the wrecker in chief but he got wickets at the death when the batsmen were going after the bowling.

Warne (0/22) was not his usual self with the ball but that was more than made up by the combined effort of the other bowlers.

Thanks to Shukla, Wriddhiman Saha and Umar Gul, Knight Riders scored 47 runs in last five overs. It was the only time they looked game for the challenge.