Pune: Kings XI Punjab broke the jinx of losing the first match of Indian Premier League as they beat Pune Warriors by eight wickets in their opening match of the IPL at Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune on Sunday.
Punjab came up with a superlative performance with the ball as four of their bowlers had an economy of less than five in their quota of four overs and they managed to restrict Pune to just 99 runs.
Later chasing a target of 100, Kings XI Punjab went off to a flying start as their captain Adam Gilchrist came all cylinders firing against Bhuvneshwar Kumar and smacked him for 14 runs off his over. He scored two boundaries and one six before he got out after making a quick 15 runs off just 10 balls. His fall brought Manan Vohra into the middle and he along with Mandeep Singh never let the scoring rate to go down.
Manan Vohra played brilliantly to smash a good 43 runs off just 26 balls which was decorated by seven crisp boundaries while Mandeep Singh scored 31 runs off just 26 balls. In the fourth over, the duo smashed 21 runs off Ashok Dinda. Vohra smacked four back to back boundaries in Dinda's over to make it the most expensive over of the match.
Rahul Sharma picked up the wicket of Mandeep Singh but Vohra and David Hussey finished the match for Kings XI.
Earlier Kings XI Punjab displayed some brilliant bowling. It was Praveen Kumar who drew the first blood in the very first over of the match as he sent Manish Pandey back to the dressing room after knocking off his off-stump. Robin Uthappa was looking good and was trying to steady the ship but bowling change made by Gilchrist earned him a breakthrough. He brought Azhar Mahmood in to the attack and he delivered in his very first over by picking the wicket of Tirumalasetti Suman who added just six runs in 14 balls he played.
The problem aggravated for Pune warriors as they lost Marlon Samuels in the eighth over of the innings when he was run-out by Mandeep Singh. Uthappa followed as he was deceived by the flight of Chawla's delivery .
Soon Parwinder Awana got rid of Angelo Mathews as he bowled a back of a length delivery to get the edge of his bat and sent him back to the pavilion. Pune were 38 for five in the first 10 overs.
Taylor was caught brilliantly by Gurkeerat Singh off Praveen Kumar on 15 while Ryan Harris bowled Mitchell Marsh. In the last four overs of the match, Pune added 21 runs to take their total to 99.
By ISN