Cape Town: Reigning IPL champions Kolkata Knights Riders (KKR) displayed a scintillating performance in their last group stage performance against the Titans in the Champions League T20 on Sunday here.
KKR were already out of the tournament finally came to the party and beat the local favourites Titans by 99 runs to put a severe dent to their semifinals aspirations.
Put into bat first, KKR posted a comprehensive 188-5 and then bundled out the opponents for a paltry 89.
KKR batsmen were off to a brilliant start in the match with Manvinder Bisla and skipper Gautam Gambhir getting the team off to a flier. Bisla however could not carry on for long and was out for 27 off 14 balls laced with three fours and a couple of sixes. His wicket brought the dangerous Brendon McCullum to the crease and carried from where Bisla left.
McCullum and Gambhir scored runs fluently and put up a partnership of a 63 for the second wicket. McCullum was the fluent off the both and scored 36 off 20 deliveries including three fours and as many sixes.
His wicket slowed down the KKR lost few quick wickets including the settled Gambhir (44 off 36 balls, 4 boundaries and a six). From 107-2 at 10th over, they were 133-4 in the 16th over. And when it just Titans will get back into the match, Debabrata Das rose to the occasion.
He took the bowlers to the cleaners in the last four overs and scored 43 off just 19 deliveries. His knock included six fours and two huge sixes.
In pursuit of 189, Titans could never get going against the KKR bowling and they combined to shot them out to the lowest total of the tournament. It was only Jacques Rudolph who showed some resistance to Kolkata and scored 25.
Laxmipath Balaji who was the receiving end throughout the tournament, finally found himself going and took four wickets by giving away just 20 runs.
Loss by such a huge margin has now put Titans in a spot of bother as they will be in a must win situation in their next match against the Delhi Daredevils to qualify for the next round.
Kolkata Knight Riders 188 for 5 (Gambhir 44, Das 43*) beat Titans 89 (Balaji 4-19) by 99 runs