Kolkata Knight Riders would be ruing their soft batting execution at Green Park which got them losing their second game back to back and left them in a shaky situation for the playoffs qualification.
The grass on the deck meant the scores of 190-200 were not quite realistic even with the boundaries not situated at a huge distance.
Technique had to play its part while setting up the total for the opposition and Kolkata’s main weapon in that regard was their skipper and highest run getter Gautam Gambhir who had got a half century in the last game too.
But, with an electrifying Shadab Jakati catching him out of the crease with a great throw from short midwicket, it opened the gate for the Gujarat pacers to make their way into a not-so-technical middle order of Kolkata which did not rise up to the task.
Having had other pacers gaining from the juice in the wicket, Suresh Raina pulled off a surprise by getting the part timer Dwayne Smith bowling from one end and the big Caribbean repaid him with the figures of 4 for 8.
However, seeing the replay of the dismissals, the Kolkata batsmen would kick themselves for the lose shots they came up with against the ever-so-slightly moving balls of Smith which were not necessarily wicket taking if they had been handled more efficiently.
Kolkata also had the new ball making inroads for them and the chase of 120 odd still seemed problematic, but, Raina, straight out of his flight from Netherlands, took care of the matter with a fifty full of style which made the chase possible in the 14th over itself.
Gujarat is in the play offs now, but, their position in top 2 is not certain unless they win their last game against Mumbai too.