Kolkata: Skipper Suresh Raina conjured up a tenacious rearguard action to lead Gujarat Lions to a four-wicket win against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in an Indian Premier League game at the Eden Gardens.
Raina (84; 46b; 9x4, 4x6) brought up his second fifty of the season's IPL also eclipsing Virat Kohli as the highest run-getter in the cash-rich T20 league. This was the former Chennai Super Kings batsman's 30th half century.
The dashing left-hander, who was dropped on 1 by wicketkeeper Robin Uthappa, smashed Chris Woakes and Nathan Coulter-Nile for 18 and 16 runs respectively but fell to Kuldeep Yadav. Ravindra Jadeja, who was unbeaten on 19 with James Faulker for company at 4, hit the winning runs with a boundary.
Play was stopped for half an hour after a light drizzle, helping KKR stem the flow of runs just when Brendon McCullum was looking dangerous on 27 off 13 balls and his team on 62/1.
Gujarat were ahead by 21 runs by Duckworth-Lewis method.
Earlier, KKR rode on a Sunil Narine hurricane at the start of their innings followed by Robin Uthappa's half century to post 187/5.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders: 187/5 (Robin Uthappa 72, Sunil Narine 42)
Gujarat Lions: 188/6 (Aron Finch 31, Brendon McCullum 33, Suresh Raina 84)
