Published: Apr 19, 2016, 11:55 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 20, 2016, 04:35 PM (IST)
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) continued their good form as they emerged victorious in the 13th game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at Mohali on Tuesday. With this win KKR have now climbed to the top of the table with six points in their basket from four outings. Their bowlers did a commendable job and the rest was taken care by Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir. IPL 2016, Match 13, Pick of the tweets: Kings XI Punjab vs Kolkata Knight Riders at Mohali
KKR won the toss and opted to field first on a wicket which looked favourable for bowling. Morne Morkel steamed in and drew the first blood in the form of Manan Vohra, their man in form. Piyush Chawla got rid of Murali Vijay and both the openers were back in the pavilion inside 8 overs. Sunil Narine looked in good touch as he scalped two big wickets of David Miller and Glenn Maxwell.
Shaun Marsh stuck to his guns and scored an unbeaten 41-ball 56 run knock on a pitch where wickets kept tumbling like nine pins. KXIP somehow managed a modest total of 138 in their 20 overs but the total was never sufficient enough to contain the dominant batting line up of KKR.
Gambhir and Uthappa started the proceedings for KKR and got off to a desirable start. Uthappa was unstoppable with the new ball as he went berserk and took on the KXIP bowlers’ right from the outset at Mohali. Gambhir rotated the strike well played a complacent knock of 34. KXIP bowlers failed to pick up wickets with the new ball a factor which hurt them massively while defending such a small target.
After a few hiccups towards the end as KKR lost three wickets in quick succession but Suryakumar Yadav and Yusuf Pathan carried the team over the line. KKR won the game comfortably by six wickets and registered their third win of the season.
Turning point: The turning point of the game was indubitably the wicket of Glenn Maxwell in the 15th over. Maxwell looked in good touch in the previous game and carries a huge reputation of snatching the game from the opposition in no time. He played reverse sweep to Sunil Narine went straight into the hands of Piyush Chawla at covers which ended KXIP’s hope of scoring a big target.
Brief Scores:
Kings XI Punjab 138 for 8 in 20 Overs (Murali Vijay 26, Shaun Marsh 56*; Sunil Narine 2 for 22, Yusuf Pathan 1 for 6) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 141 for 4 in 17.1 Overs (Robin Uthappa 53, Gautam Gambhir 34; Akshar Patel 2 for 19, Pardeep Sahu 2 for 18) by 6 wickets.
(Suraj Choudhari, an avid cricket follower who plays the sport at club level, is a staffer with Criclife)
