From ha ha ha to ‘aaaghh’

(From top) Sourav Ganguly's daughter Sana cheers for the KKR; the Riders' captain after the defeat; and Shah Rukh Khan before the tide turned during the match on Sunday. Pictures by Pabitra Das and Gautam Bose

Calcutta, April 4: Sitting in the dugout inches from the boundary, Sourav Ganguly cracked up and kept laughing out loud as Piyush Chawla grounded a skier from Chris Gayle.

A little more than 23 overs of T20 cricket later, Dada's one-time protégé Yuvraj Singh was having the last laugh as the Kolkata Knight Riders were handed an upset defeat by Kings XI Punjab at a packed Eden Gardens this evening.

There was no dimpled smile from Preity Zinta to welcome her team's second victory — Bollywood's pretty lady was missing from action because of shoots and shows — but a glum Shah Rukh Khan watched from the stands, his feelings captured in his tweet: "aaaghh".

The board stuck to the Rs 32,000 gallery clearly read "Do not lean against the railing" — but there was SRK, perched on the white barrier, watching Punjab chase down the 201-run target with eight wickets and 10 balls to spare.

"We let this one slip by. all the more difficult to qualify. well done kings 11. now have to play fearlessly. gayle was superb. fielding aaaghh," he tweeted later in the night.

While Yuvraj silenced the murmurs about his commitment to the team through a few mighty hits towards the end of the match, it was Mahela Jayawardene's classy, undefeated 110 off 59 balls that sealed it for Punjab.

The knock, replete with 14 fours and three sixes, also eclipsed the (Chris) Gayle storm that hit Eden earlier in the day.

The West Indian opener had the crowds in raptures when he went from 30 to 80 in just 12 balls, aided by four back-to-back sixes off Ravi Bopara.

Different moods of Shah Rukh Khan at the eden Gardens. Pictures by Pabitra Das

At that stage, no one gave Kings XI a chance. Even in the celebrity gallery, where four to five rows of seats are taken over by the away team, the Punjab support count didn't hit double figures.

The only glam support for Kings XI was city model Debi Dutta, who plays Ranbir Kapoor's friend in Rocket Singh. She came in with team co-owner Karan Paul.

It wasn't just Preity — contrary to expectations, the Bollywood turnout was low in the KKR stands too on Easter Sunday.

If Shah Rukh was flanked by Sushmita Sen and Raveena Tandon three nights ago, today his company was a little less glam — Rajeev Shukla and Jagmohan Dalmiya.

While SRK played the perfect host as always, he chose to chat about cricket with Jahnavi, Juhi Chawla's nine-year-old daughter, almost throughout the game.

The other known faces in the KKR camp were the Anuranan pair of Rahul Bose and Rituparna Sengupta plus industrialist Harsh Neotia.

It was the second 4pm game at the Eden this IPL season, and the heat again got to everyone. Shah Rukh himself took an extended seven-over smoke break in the air-conditioned IPL Lounge below the 32K galleries.

So, again, the Boss wasn't around when Gayle was taking Bopara to the cleaners, just like he was missing from the galleries when Ganguly was tearing Ojha apart last Thursday.

But the Eden saw a buoyant SRK on Sunday, just arrived from Malaysia where he had made an appearance at the Formula One Grand Prix. He was not only cheering the Knights with his characteristic hands-in-the-air routine but, for the first time this season, actually roused the Club House stands into making some noise.

Before Mahela and Sangakkara took over the Eden, that is.

After the Knights had beaten Kings XI in Mohali earlier in the season, Shah Rukh had tweeted to Preity: "hope to play finals with your team".

After Sunday's defeat, SRK must be praying that Kings XI hasn't just stopped the Knights from reaching anywhere near the final.

Before settling down in his seat at the start of Sunday's match, Shah Rukh Khan hopped over a few seats in the 32K stand to welcome Dona Ganguly and gave a warm hug to the wife of the KKR captain. Pictures by Pabitra Das Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100405/jsp/frontpage/story_12303466.jsp