Kolkata: Mark Boucher's valiant effort went in vain as Kolkata Knight Riders returned to the winning ways by beating Bangalore Royal Challengers by five runs in a thrilling encounter of the Indian Premier League here tonight.

In the rain-truncated match, the Knight Riders posted 129 for seven in their allotted quota of 16 overs. The Royal Challengers slow scoring rate in the middle overs left a huge task for them at the end as they managed only 124 for four.

Boucher (50 not out off 40 balls; 5x4,1x6) and Cameron White (30 off 16 balls, 3x4,1x6) stepped on the accelerator with some lusty hittings to make it a humdinger of a contest at the Eden Gardens.

But disciplined bowling and superb fielding by the Knight Riders thwarted the visiting team's effort to stay them afloat in the tournament.

Having managed only 53 for three in ten overs and with the asking rate steeply climbing to almost 13,the duo of Boucher and White put on an entertaining 45-run stand off just 30 balls.

But the Aussie was unlucky to run out at the non-striker's end in the penultimate over and that dealt a severe blow to the Royal Challengers chances.

Knight Riders skipper Sourav Ganguly played a vital part in his side's third win of the tournament. With his medium-pace bowling, he returned splendid figures of one for seven off three overs that put the home side in the drivers seat at the middle stage.

The Knight Riders now have six points from seven games, while the Royal Challengers have moved further down the path of oblivion as they succumbed to their sixth loss in eight ties, managing only four points so far. Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first against Bangalore Royal Challengers in a rain-curtailed match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday night.

The match has been reduced to a 16-over per side game after rain delayed its start by almost an hour and a half.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Sourav Ganguly (Captain), Brad Hodge, Ashok Dinda, David Hussey, Siddarth Kaul, Ajit Agarkar, Rohan Banerjee, Ranadeb Bose, Aakash Chopra, Debabrata Das, Iqbal Abdulla, Murali Kartik, Saurasish Lahiri, Mohammad Hafeez, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha, Salman Butt, Ishant Sharma, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Tatenda Taibu (wicketkeeper), Umar Gul, Yashpal Singh.

Bangalore Royal Challengers: Rahul Dravid (Captain), Abdur Razzak, Balachandra Akhil, K. P. Appanna, Jagadeesh Arunkumar, Mark Boucher (wicketkeeper), Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Bharat Chipli, Shreevats Goswami, Wasim Jaffer, Sunil Joshi, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Anil Kumble, Misbah-ul-Haq, Ashley Noffke, Devraj Patil, Dale Steyn, Ross Taylor, R. Vinay Kumar, Cameron White.

Source : IANS