Kolkata Knight Riders lost their third away game of this season as they were stunned by Kings XI Punjab in nail-bitting finish at Mohali. It was an easy target for a batting line-up of KKR which have so much of fire-power but they failed to do so. Gautam Gambhir and Eoin Morgan played exceedingly well to puncture the bowling of Piyush Chawla but it was Manpreet Gony and Praveen Kumar who came to the rescue for Kings XI Punjab. Earlier, Manpreet Gony and Mandeep Singh batted really well to score 42 and 41 runs respectively to set a competitive target of 158 runs for KKR.
Here we bring to you the hits and flops from the match between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders:
Hits
Manpreet Gony: A splendid performance by Gony turned the tables in favours of Punjab as he first smashed Sunil Narine for 23 runs in his final overs and scored 42 off just 18 balls. In his electrifying batting at Mohali, he smacked four fours and three sixes. But icing on the cake came when he bowled exceedingly well and gave away just 18 runs in four overs and picked up the crucial wicket of Gautam Gambhir to clinch the victory from KKR.
Sunil Narine: Narine was on-song as he picked up the first hat-trick of this edition of Indian Premier League. His hat-trick tilted the balance in KKR’s favour but that just lasted for few moments as Gony smacked him in his last over quite badly and Narine ended up with the figures of 3/33.
Mandeep Singh: Young-lad played a fantastic knock of 41 runs off 30 balls by smashing six fours in his innings. He batted brilliantly to lift the team up in the initial overs of the innings as he stayed till the 11th over.
Jacques Kallis: Kallis was at his usual best as he ended up with the figures of 3/24 in his four overs and restricted Punjab to a decent total of 157. His bowling in last over was simply outstanding but while batting, he got out after scoring just one run.
Gautam Gambhir: He scored the third consecutive half-century in this IPL and was looking great in his knock of 60 runs. He scored nine boundaries in his innings but his dismissal tilted the balance in favour of Punjab who ultimately won this exciting match.
Eoin Morgan: Morgan Played well for his 47 runs but got out when he was needed the most. His poor shot-selection cost him his wicket and for KKR this match. Morgan hit six boundaries in his stay of 38 balls at the crease.
Azhar Mahmood: Azhar bowled brilliantly once again and picked up three wickets at a very crucial time for his team. He ended up with the figures of 3/21 in his four overs. He got out at first ball while he was batting.
FLOPS
Piyush Chawla: A better bowling performance was expected from Piyush but he failed to deliver that and went for 28 runs in his three overs. He kept giving away boundaries followed by some easy singles which allowed the batsmen to score against him and the worst part was he bowled just one dot ball in the match.
Adam Gilchrist: Gilchrist is not looking in good touch and that’s making a remarkable difference in the top-order of Kings XI Punjab. He scored just seven runs in his outing.
Manoj Tiwary: Tiwary made the mockery of himself by playing dot-balls in the death overs. He should have picked up one or twos but he decided that he will keep on leaving the balls and finally he crumbled under the pressure created by him and got out after scoring just one run.
Yusuf Pathan: Pathan made the mess of an easy target by playing seven dot balls in a row. He kept leaving the balls which added the pressure on the batsmen. KKR should rest him for few matches and bring in some local talent to test him in these pressure situations.
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network