Rajasthan's Rahane scripts a Royal finish

Opener hits a record six fours in an over on his way to the tournament's first hundred this year as Royals go top.

Ajinkya Rahane hit left-arm seamer Aravind Sreesanth for six fours in an over.

Ajinkya Rahane scored the first century of this year's Indian Premier League to propel the Rajasthan Royals to the top of the table with a crushing 59-run victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The 23-year-old right-hand batsman hit 12 fours and five sixes, including a tournament record of six boundaries in an over, during his 60-ball knock of 103 to lead Rajasthan to 195 for two.

Owais Shah provided able support by adding 60 in 26 balls with five fours and as many sixes.

Rahane hails from Mumbai but considered Rahul Dravid, the Rajasthan captain, as his mentor. "That was a special knock from me ... I am playing along side my role model, Dravid, so I get to learn a lot of things from him. This is quite a long tournament, so I just need to keep my form going."

Rahane and Shah top the run chart after their 121-run stand for the second wicket, following Dravid's departure, took the game away from Bangalore.

Complimenting his batsmen for their performance against bowlers such as Zaheer Khan, Muthiah Muralitharan and Daniel Vettori last night, Dravid said: "Shah and Rahane batted splendidly. Some of their shots were incredible and they played those shots against a side that has five international bowlers."

For Rajasthan, the fast bowlers Sidharth Trivedi and Pankaj Singh chipped away six of the top seven batsmen as Bangalore were restricted to 136 in their run chase for a third defeat.

Earlier in a low-scoring game, Kings XI Punjab made it back-to-back wins with a nail-biting two-run victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders, who were unable to capitalise on a brilliant display by the spinner Sunil Narine.

After limiting Kings XI to 134 for nine, with the West Indian Narine taking five for 19 off his four overs, hosts Kolkata looked in good shape to claim the victory after reaching 72 for two in the 12th over of their reply.

However, they lost four important wickets for the addition of only 15 runs and despite 35 not out from Debabrata Das, the home side came up just short, finishing on 132 for seven.

The leg-spinner Piyush Chawla took three crucial wickets for 18 runs as he ran through the Kolkata middle order.

Narine, who was named the man of the match, said modestly: "I look to contain and hit the right areas."

The Kings XI needed nine off the last over, but the medium-fast bowler Harmeet Singh varied his pace intelligently to bowl Ryan ten Doeschate. Das, who top-scored for his team, managed a single off the last delivery when a boundary was required.

Adam Gilchrist, the Punjab captain, said: "The guys fought well with the bat, some exceptional spin bowling from Narine and Co. Always felt Harmeet had it in him."

Gautam Gambhir, his opposite number, said: "We left it till the end. You need to play intelligent cricket. We should have finished it off when we needed 13 off 12. We should have played better as a batting unit."

But it was Chawla's triple blow midway through Kolkata's run chase that hurt the home team most.

He clean bowled Manvinder Bisla (27) and Yousuf Pathan for zero in one over before neatly taking a skied ball off a mistimed sweep shot by Shakib Al Hasan (four) with Kolkata slipping to 88 for six by the 15th over after looking comfortable at 73 for two in the 12th over.

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