Ahmedabad: Rajasthan Royals registered their first victory of the third season of Indian Premier League as they defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by

34 runs at Sardar Patel stadium, Motera on Saturday. Some late hitting by Owais Shah (19 off 17 balls) and skipper Sourav Ganguly (33 off 29 balls) failed to change the outcome as Royals successfully restricted the run flow in the match.

Yusuf Pathan struck in his final over to dismiss Brad Hodge (36 off 34 balls) to add more misery for Knight Riders.

Siddharth Trivedi added blow to already struggling Knight Riders’ run chase when he clean bowled Cheteshwar Pujara (29 off 25 balls) to reduce KKR to 68/2 in 10.4 overs.

Knight Riders lost opener Manoj Tiwary (11) in the third over to Yusuf Pathan, who clean bowled the batsman.

Earlier, Pacers Ashok Dinda, Shane Bond and Ishant Sharma shared two wickets apiece to help Knight Riders restrict Royals for 168/7.

Royals’ Adam Voges (37 not out) hit two sixes in the last over to set a fighting 169-run target for Knight Riders.

Ishant Sharma struck twice in the 18th over to dismiss Paras Dogra (0) and top-scorer Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (45 off 36 balls) to halt the Royals charge as lower-order batsmen failed to contribute much to the total.

Ashok Dinda struck again in his second spell to get rid of Yusuf Pathan (15 off 14 balls) to reduce Royals to 105/4 in 13 overs.

Royals lost Naman Ojha (27 off 18 balls) while trying to sneak a second run in the 9th over after Shane Bond struck in his first over to get rid of dangerous looking Faiz Fazal (31 off 23 balls) in the fifth over of the match.

Ojha was going steadily before the run out, he hit five boundaries in his 18 balls inning.

Faiz Fazal hit six boundaries to resurrect Royals innings after Dinda gave Knight Riders an early breakthrough when he trapped opener Michael Lumb in the very first ball of the match.

Earlier, Rajasthan Royals skipper Shane Warne won the toss and opted to bat against Kolkata Knight Riders.