Kolkata Knight Riders have defeated Kings XI Punjab in the last eight IPL fixtures. Their 14-run win over the two-time champions, which saw them defend 168 and overcome a hectic start from Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn enabled them to dream on.
Lynn, explained, "Ya, obviously disappointed that we didn't get the two points at the end of the day but I think we can take a lot of positives out of the game and I think we touched on as a group what we needed to work on and we didn't do those things tonight".
The opening duo of Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine once again provided KKR with a fabulous start as they put on 39 runs.
The leg-spinner would concede just 18 runs from his four overs as Kolkata lost whatever momentum they had. The effect: the required run rate, which was 7.64 after six overs, had shot to 10.25 before the start of the thirteenth over.
However, while the sluggishness of the KKR innings can be one explanation for their loss last evening, the corollary has to be some expert bowling by Punjab.
Choosing to bowl first, the Lions got their first wicket on the fifth ball of the match as Pradeep Sangwan removed Martin Guptill for two runs. But his most telling contribution came from the run out of danger-man Chris Lynn, when the Aussie batsman opted to chase two on the arm of Patel, who hurled in a ideal throw to Wriddiman Saha behind the stumps to catch Lynn short of his ground. The home side restricted KKR to 153 for 6. Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Rahul Tewatia are not big names in the global circuit, but they bowled with a lot of resolve, and to a plan and bowled within themselves, choking the mighty KKR batting line-up.
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Axar Patel (not out 8) and Rahul Tewatia (not out 14) were at the crease at the end of the innings.
Kings XI Punjab's wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha scored 38 off 33 balls to take the team's score past 150 from a crisis situation.
Kings XI Punjab Playing 11: M Vohra, MJ Guptill, SE Marsh, GJ Maxwell*, WP Saha†, AR Patel, R Tewatia, MJ Henry, MM Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Swapnil Singh.
Shaun Marsh looked good for his 11, milking two boundaries before Chris Woakes castled him. KXIP 56-3 in 8.3 overs. Saha wasn't fluent, struggled to find the gaps and crawled to 10 from 17 balls, before he accelerated in the second half of his innings.
KKR's other batsmen like Colin de Grandhomme, Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan will also have to come good today. He then hit two more boundaries off Umesh Yadav to up the ante.
Maxwell's was explosive late in the innings and made 44 runs off 25 balls in an innings that included four sixes and was crucial for his side as they racked up a total of 6-167 off their 20 overs.
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