Deccan beats Kolkata by 8 wickets in IPL

Herschelle Gibbs and Rohit Sharma guided the Deccan Chargers to a comfortable eight-wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League at Newlands on Sunday.

Gibbs was unbeaten on 43 and Sharma 36 after Deccan had earlier bowled out Kolkata for 101.

Deccan lost opener and captain Adam Gilchrist (13) in the second over after he skied a shot to Moises Henriques off the bowling of Ashok Dinda. The only other wicket to fall was VVS Laxman (10), who was was run out by Laxmi Shukla's throw to captain Brendon McCullum.

But after that Gibbs and Sharma took over.

Gibbs stroked five fours and one six, while Sharma hit three fours and two sixes.

Pace bowler Rudra Singh took the man-of-the-match award after taking 4-22, but Deccan's Gilchrist also singled out Gibbs and Sharma.

"Herschelle and Rohit were very professional today," Gilchrist said. "It gives confidence to the whole group.

"It’s an ideal start. We had that kind of intensity in training and the guys bought into it. The challenge for us is to maintain that standard."

McCullum blamed the defeat on a top-order batting collapse that saw Kolkata lose its top three batsmen for just 16 runs.

"To lose our top three in the fashion we did was very disappointing," McCullum said. "It's tough for bowlers when you have 100 runs on the board to defend. I'm disappointed we did not give them a big enough total to defend."