Mohali: Some superb bowling from Praveen Kumar, Azhar Mahmood and Manpreet Gony in the death overs helped Kings XI Punjab upset Kolkata Knight Riders by defeating them in a very close-encounter by a slender margin of just four runs at Mohali on Tuesday.
Yusuf Pathan and Manoj Tiwary were the real culprits for KKR as they played too many dot balls in last five overs and put themselves under lot of pressure. Hard work of Gautam Gambhir and Eoin Morgan, who scored 60 and 47 respectively, went in vain.
Earlier, it was the sensational knock of 42 runs off just 18 balls from Gony which helped Kings XI Punjab to post a competitive total of 157 runs on the board.
Chasing the target of 158 was not a very tough task for very well balanced batting line-up of KKR, but they started off very badly as they lost the wicket of Manvinder Bisla on the very first ball of their innings. Jacques Kallis also departed in the second over for just one run which brought Morgan on the crease with his captain Gautam Gambhir. Both of them started rebuilding the Kkr innings and were looking in terrific form. They added 104 runs for the third wicket-stand and ensured that they will win this match quite easily. Gambhir departed after scoring magnificent 60 runs off just 39 balls. Soon Morgan played a poor shot and ran his team in to the trouble as he departed after scoring 47 runs off 38 balls.
With Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan on the crease, it was still under the control of KKR but both of them played too many dot balls in the middle overs which not only created the pressure on them but also increased the scoring rate quite drastically. Tiwary got out while he was trying to score a big one and he was followed by Debabrata Das in the dug-out.
Rajat Bhatia scored 16 off just 8 balls but Pathan was in his own world and he kept taking singles and playing dot balls and finally got out after scoring 13 off 16 balls. Praveen bowled brilliantly in last over and gave away just six runs and was well supported by Manpreet Gony and Azhar Mahmood who ended up with the figures of 1/18 and 3/21 respectively.
Earlier, it was Mandeep Singh and Mandeep Vohra who gave them some momentum after Gilchrist’s dismissal. They added 37 runs to take the score to 61 runs in nine overs. Mandeep Singh and Manan Vohra scored 41 and 17 runs for KXI-P before getting out to Jacques Kallis and Lakshmipathy Balaji.
Meanwhile, Sunil Narine bowled superbly to get the first hat-trick of this IPL career and took the wickets of three big guns in David Hussey, Azhar Mahmood and Gurkeerat Singh in his third over.
But the twist in the tail was about to come, as Manpreet Gony smacked Narine for 23 runs in his final over. Gony took his chances and cleared the ropes seven times as he hit four fours and three sixes and took his team to a fighting total of 157. His 42 runs off just 18 balls made a great amount of difference to the outcome of the match. He was adjudged the man-of-the-match for his brilliant performance.
Jacques Kallis and Sunil Narine ended up with the figures of 3/24 and 3/33 in their four overs.
By ISN