Chandigarh: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Kings XI Punjab by 39 runs in Mohali on Saturday. This is their third victory in the tournament. Scorecard

Earlier, Kings XI Punjab made a disastrous start while chasing a target of 184 runs to win the crucial match. Ravi Bopara became the victim of Shane Bond.

Former skipper Yuvraj Singh lost his vital wicket to Ajit Agarkar. Manoj Tiwary made no mistake in taking his catch. Agarkar again made a strike when he got the wicket of Bisla.

Mahela Jayawardene and skipper Kumara Sangakkara tried to steady the innings. Angelo Mathews removed Jayawardene while Gayle took the important wicket of Sangakkara.

Earlier, Sourav Ganguly and Manoj Tiwary slammed twin half-centuries as Kolkata Knight Riders compiled a competitive 183 for five against Kings XI Punjab in T20 match in Mohali on Saturday.

Tiwary (75) forged a crucial 79-run stand for the third wicket with Ganguly (50) and later slammed two sixes and two fours in the last over to lift Kolkata Knight Riders from 45 for two to 183 for five, their highest total in the tournament.

The 24-year-old Tiwary's 47-ball unbeaten innings was bejeweled with eight fours and two sixes, while Ganguly's breezy 40-ball innings included six fours and one six.

Knight Riders were off to a rollicking start with opener Chris Gayle (14) clobbering three fours off Brett Lee as the Australian, playing his first match in the season, bleeded 19 runs in his first over.

Ganguly also didn't lag behind and punished Irfan Pathan for consecutive fours in the second over to take Kolkata to 27 in two overs.

However, Shalabh Srivastava put the brakes on the score, getting rid of Gayle, who miscued a pull shot and Manvinder Bisla took a good catch at the boundary line.

Ganguly picked up a couple of fours more to keep the scoreboard ticking before newman Mandeep Singh popped one up straight to Lee at mid on to see his side reduce to 45 for two in five overs.

With Vikramjeet Malik and Piyush Chawla bowling in tandem, runs dried up for the Kolkata team and Ganguly and Manoj Tiwary had to depend on ones and twos to take KKR to 75 for two in 10 overs.

In the 11th over, Ganguly slammed the first six of the match when he sent Chawla out of the park and followed it up with a boundary at cover to step the gas.

Tiwary also joined the party and pulled Malik for a midwicket boundary, before picking up another four at cover to bring up the hundred for the Knight Riders.

Tiwary and Ganguly played some intelligent cricket to keep the momentum going and the latter brought up his half-century in the 14th over.

However, the left-handed skipper didn't last long and was dismissed by Pathan in the 15th over. Chawla then cleaned up Newman David Hussey as suddenly KKR slided to 130 for four in 16 overs.

Tiwary reached his fifty in the next over and blasted two sixes and as many fours in the last over to swell the KKR innings in the end.