Kolkata, May 8: Sourav Ganguly led from the front as the Kolkata Knight Riders squeezed out winners by five runs over the Bangalore Royal Challengers in a rain-reduced bottom of the table IPL clash at the Eden Gardens on Thursday night.

Needing 130 to win, the Royal Challengers were never in the hunt despite a brave fightback by Mark Boucher (40 not out) and Cameron White (30). But they had been left with too much to do after J Arun Kumar, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Rahul Dravid were unable to break the shackles imposed by Kolkata’s bowlers.

Superb fielding was another key to Kolkata’s win and they were cheered all the way home by not just a huge crowd but also team owner Shah Rukh Khan who sat through the nerve-racking run-chase.

Royal Challengers were tied down by some superb bowling at the top by Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda and they were backed up with a a superb three-over spell by Ganguly from the High Court end during which he also removed Dravid (5) conceding only seven runs. It tilted the balance in favour of the hosts.

There was a goof-up during Knight Riders innings as umpires mixed up two Royal Challengers Kumars — Vinay and Praveen. They had Vinay with four overs bowled and Praveen with one, instead of three and two. Dravid pleaded his case, and Steyn finally got to bowl after the delay.

Earlier, a rain squall reduced the match to a 16-overs-a-side affair. Ganguly elected to field but his choice of openers was surprising as both Aakash Chopra (2) and Brad Hodge (10) lacked the firepower to go after the bowling. The in-form David Hussey (26, 12b, 3X6) could have provided the momentum but he came in at number four instead.

Chopra found a Dale Steyn (3/28) incutter too quick to handle and was caught plumb in front. Hodge, who at least showed some urgency, perished when he top-edged a hook off Zaheer Khan (1/27).

Ganguly’s poor form continued and this time, he was run out as Cameron White found the target from short cover. Ganguly scored 20 off 22 balls with a couple of delightful boundaries.

Brief Scores: (16 over match) Kolkata Knight Riders 129/7 (Ganguly 20, Hussey 26; Steyn 3/27, Khan 1/27) beat Bangalore Royal Challengers 124/4 (Boucher 50, White 30; Ishant 1/25, Ganguly 1/7) by 5 runs.