Cricket-Gayle leads Kolkata to victory over Punjab in IPL

DURBAN, South Africa, April 21 (Reuters) - Chris Gayle led the Kolkata Knight Riders to an 11-run win over the Kings XI Punjab in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match before rain washed out the day's second match at Kingsmead on Tuesday.

Gayle blasted his way to an unbeaten 44 off 26 balls with two fours and four sixes as Kolkata beat Punjab on the Duckworth/Lewis method.

In response to Punjab's 158 for six, Kolkata reached 79 for one after 9.2 overs, comfortably ahead of the required Duckworth/Lewis par score of 68, before rain forced the players from the field.

Persistent rain meant that the day's second scheduled match, between the Mumbai Indians and the Rajasthan Royals, was called off without a ball being bowled.

Gayle, who was dropped at midwicket by Karan Goel with his score on two, and Brendon McCullum got Kolkata's run chase off to an ideal start with a first-wicket stand of 57 runs off 37 balls before McCullum was caught behind by keeper Kumar Sangakkara off the bowling of seamer Vikramjeet Malik.

After being put in to bat by Kolkata under leaden skies, and on a pitch offering some seam movement, Punjab made a good fist of their innings with their total being built around blistering knocks of 32 runs off 17 balls from the left-handed Irfan Pathan and 38 runs off 28 balls from Yuvraj Singh.

Mahela Jayawardene gave his team some momentum towards the end of their innings as he ended not out on 31 off 19 balls which included scoring 14 runs off the last over of Punjab's innings.

Sourav Ganguly was Kolkata's most successful bowler as the medium pacer returned figures of two for 24 off four overs which included taking two wickets in three balls to reduce Punjab to 48 for three in the seventh over. link...