Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed Rajasthan Royals by eight wickets at Eden Gardens on Friday to keep their hopes afloat in the Pepsi Indian Premier League.

Earlier Rajasthan won the toss and batted, were easily summed up with three talking points – Kolkata’s bowling, Sanju Samson’s innings and Rahul Dravid’s decision to keep himself away from the crease till the fourth ball of the final over.

Yusuf Pathan reposed Gautam Gambhir’s faith as he finally returned to form with an unbeaten 49 (35 balls; 3×4, 3×6), his highest for the Knight Riders.

Pathan shared an unbroken 78-run third-wicket partnership with Jacques Kallis, who struck an unbeaten 33, as the duo settled the issue with 16 balls to spare.

Kallis struck Brad Hogg over his head for a boundary to finish the chase as Pathan remained stranded one run shy of a half-century but his coming to form ensured Knight Riders their fourth win from 11 matches.

Chasing a modest 133, the Knight Riders set the tone with Gambhir (12) and Manvinder Bisla (29) sharing a 41-run opening-wicket partnership that came off just 33 balls.

A brilliant stumping of Gambhir by Dishant Yagnik, who stood up to Watson, broke the opening partnership. Bisla too followed suit which brought Pathan to the middle.

The misfiring Pathan grew in confidence as there were a flurry of sixes from him with little effect from the Royals’ spin duo of Brad Hogg and Chavan as they took the required rate to less than run-a-ball.

Knight Riders had Royals in trouble at 83/4 in the 13th over when Dishant Yagnik (10) became Senanayake`s second victim.

Samson remained unfazed at the other end as he pulled the Lankan offie over midwicket, in an action replay of his previous six.

At the same time, Samson was also sensible in his approach as he did not take any risk against Narine who was as usual tidy.