Bangalore - A half-century each from Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis eased the Kolkata Knight Riders to a nine-wicket victory in their must-win CLT20 match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore here on Thursday.

Kolkata were never really in the hunt, as first Kallis and Brad Haddin (42) added 61 quick runs before Haddin drove Daniel Vettori straight to the cover fielder.

Man-of-the-Match Kallis then combined with his captain to put together a murderous 109-run partnership that saw their team home, with 2.3 overs to spare.

The master all-rounder finished with 64 off 47 deliveries and Gambhir blasted a 31-ball 55.

Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore's captain, Vettori, scored a 23-ball 44 to help them reached 169 for nine after being inserted.

Together with Raju Bhatkal, the pair added 61 runs for the seventh wicket, after Bangalore found themselves in trouble on 91 for six.

Kallis claimed the first wicket, that of Chris Gayle. After being hit for six off the previous ball, Kallis fired in a perfect yorker to remove Gayle's leg stump.

Iqbal Abdulla proceeded to plot the implosion of the middle order, taking two of the four wickets to fell for only 29 runs, finishing with 2/20 off three overs.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: TM Dilshan (wk), CH Gayle, MA Agarwal, V Kohli, SS Tiwary, M Kaif, DL Vettori (capt), RR Bhatkal, J Syed Mohammad, DP Nannes, S Aravind

Kolkata Knight Riders: JH Kallis, G Gambhir (capt), MK Tiwary, YK Pathan, RN ten Doeschate, BJ Haddin (wk), R Bhatia, B Lee, Iqbal Abdulla, Shami Ahmed, JD Unadkat