Rajasthan Royals relinquished their grip on The IPL after losing a tense game to Kolkata Knight Riders.
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It was win or bust for Rajasthan, but they blew out spectacularly with the bat – not helped by some suicidal running – and although Kolkata did their best to throw the game away with the bat, The Knight Riders limped over the line for a four-wicket win.
Kolkata bow out with wins in their last two games, while the defending champions will head home reflecting on what might have been.
Brendon McCullum opted to open up with spin against Najam Ojha, a player who has looked suspect against pace, and it is was a move that backfired as he plonked the ball into the crowd on three occasions.
Charl Langeveldt was tossed the ball at the other end and he took a wicket with his first ball, his first ball in The IPL as well.
While Kolkata have struggled throughout the tournament, Langeveldt has kicked his heels on the bench and he gave a timely nudge to under-fire coach John Buchanan as a rapid bouncer proved too good for Rob Quiney who gloved the ball behind to the keeper.
Swopnil Asnodkar looked all at sea against the pace of Langeveldt and Ashok Dinda and ran himself out attempting to get off strike.
Ojha had no clue against Langeveldt and the South African got his reward when keeper Shoaib Sheikh took a stunning one-handed catch.
Johan Botha played on to Ajit Agarkar and things got worse for The Royals in this must-win game when Langeveldt came back to take his third wicket, removing Niraj Patel who got in a muddle attempting a hook shot and flicked the ball to Sourav Ganguly.
Yusuf Pathan has bailed The Royals out on a few occasions in The IPL, but he was given no chance of doing so against Kolkata as he was run out by his team-mate Ravi Jadeja.
Jadeja called Pathan through for a quick single only to send him back and Laxmi Shukla took off the bails.
Things got worse for Jadeja in the next over as he ran out Tyron Henderson, calling him for a single that was never on and David Hussey threw down the stumps.
The run outs appeared to drain the confidence from Jadeja as he struggled to 14 from 19 balls before missing a straight one from Sourav Sarkar and it was only a stubborn 19 from Shane Warne that saw Rajasthan past three figures.
Kolkata’s chase did not get off to the best start as Sourav Ganguly was caught at gully for a duck, ending a disappointing IPL for the former India captain, and McCullum was unfortunate to get a submarine ball and was trapped lbw by Amit Singh.
Rajasthan needed to field well to stand a chance and Quiney pouched a superb diving catch at third man to get rid of Yashpal Singh.
Brad Hodge and David Hussey, two big players for Kolakta, came together with the team in crisis but they could not dig them out of trouble.
Hodge misjudged the spin of a ball and set off for a single and was run out by the keeper, while Hussey top edged a pull off Botha and picked out Patel on the fence at square leg.
The running travails affected Kolkata in the same way they did Rajasthan as Sheikh went for a single that was never on and Pathan and Botha combined to send him back.
Kolkata needed a cool head and Shukla provided it, aided by Agarkar in a partnership of 57, as he hit an unbeaten 48 to secure victory with three balls to spare.
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