Ranchi: Pune Warriors India stunned Kolkata Knight Riders in a nail-biting contest as they registered their third win of the tournament by the slender margin of seven runs at the JSCA Stadium here on Wednesday.
It was some fine bowling performances from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Wayne Parnell in the death overs which handed over this victory to PWI. Yusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate batted really well and scored 72 runs and 42 runs respectively, but failed to take their team home.
Earlier it was some fine batting from Aaron Finch and Manish Pandey which led PWI to a stiff total of 170 for the loss of just four wickets.
Manish Pandey was adjudged man-of-the-match for his brilliant 66 runs off just 47 balls.
Kolkata lost the wickets at regular intervals in the initial overs which pushed them on to the back-foot while chasing the target of 171 runs. KKR lost Gautam Gambhir, Manvinder Bisla and Jacques Kallis in quick succession and were reduced to 3/29 in the first five overs. But Yusuf and Ryan gave them the much needed stability and were looked good at the crease. The duo freed their arms soon and started scoring quickly. They added 98 runs before Ryan got run-out. He departed after scoring 42 runs off 30 balls.
But the big wicket of Pathan, who was was given out by the third umpire for restricting the field, was the turning point of the game. He was dismissed after scoring brilliant 72 runs. After Pathan's fall, it became hard for Rajat Bhatia and Debabrata Das to find the boundaries because of some brilliant bowling from Bhuvneshwar and Parnell.
Earlier, Aaron Finch and Robin Uthappa gave Pune a blistering start as they added 41 runs in just five overs. Uthappa departed after scoring 25 runs but Finch and Pandey kept the score board ticking. Duo kept finding the boundaries in almost every over which made it really tough for the bowlers to bowl to them. They added 56 runs for the second wicket before Finch was dismissed for 48 runs off 32 balls which was studded with three fours and two sixes. He was undone by Lakshmipathy Balaji.
Manish Pandey and Yuvraj Singh batted brilliantly in the death overs as they added 65 runs for the third wicket in just 40 balls they faced together. Pandey got run-out at the score of 66 whereas Yuvraj was sent back to dug-out after contributing 30 runs off just 20 balls. Pune added 170 runs in their 20 overs.