Kolkata: Riding on some fanatstic knocks from Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis and Manvinder Bisla and some tight bowling from their spinners, Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals by eight wickets at Eden Gardens on Friday.

Happy with the win, winning captain Gautam Gambhir said, “It was important to win here. We needed to get ourselves out of the situation we were in and we did well today. Spin has been our strength. We have got quality and they have done well,” said Gambhir, adding that Ranchi, where they would be playing their next match would be a ompletely different venue.

“Hopefully we get the same support there too,” said Gambhir.

Meanwhile, Yusuf Pathan, who found form at the right time in an must win situation for KKR in the IPL match at Eden Gardens, said he was happy to see people enjoy his innings. Pathan, who got the man of the match for his blistering 49 runs, said, “It's good to see that everyone is happy when I score. Today I had a lot of time to bat, which gave me confidence to play well. It was an important match. We needed to win it and we did it,” said Pathan, hoping to continue with his performance in the remaining matches as well.

Rajasthan Royals skipper Rahul Dravid said that he had to try something different as Kolkata Knight Riders had all the aces and Rajasthan needed to score as many as possible in the first 10. “It was a touch wicket to bat on. There were a lot of positives to come from this. We batted well but did not bowl too well on this wicket,” said Dravid in all praise for young Sanju Samson.

“Samson is a very good kid. But it's a long way to go for him and we allow him to keep his feet on ground,” said Dravid.

By ISN