By Shiamak Unwalla
May 28, 2014
Robin Uthappa once again provided a good platform for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP)  in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 Qualifier 1.
Mitchell Johnson, bowling the second over of the Qualifier, drew first blood when he accounted for Gautam Gambhir early. After bowling a very good late-swinging delivery to Gambhir first ball, Johnson pitched one short and had Gambhir pull straight to George Bailey at short midwicket.
That brought in Manish Pandey, and was the start of a productive period of play for KKR which saw Uthappa and Pandey put on a belligerent 65-run partnership in exactly seven overs. Akshar Patel, who bowled a miserly three-run over first up, came back to bowl his second over with two well-set batsmen in the middle. He got rid of Robin Uthappa caught at long-off off the second delivery off the over, before accounting for Manish Pandey with the penultimate delivery off that same over. It was an unfortunate way for Pandey to get dismissed, as the ball hit his thigh-pad and rolled on to the stumps. Akshar bowled a double-wicket maiden to halt KKR in their tracks. Akshar celebrated a call-up to the national side for the tour of Bangladesh with eventual figures of 4-1-11-2 to completely stun KKR.
That brought in Yusuf Pathan and Shakib-al-Hasan. Both big-hitters, who showed some very good form in the last few games, were unable to find the boundaries at will but still managed to get either a four or a six every other over. They put on a comparatively sedate 41-run stand before Karanveer Singh, bowling the 15th over, did an Akshar Patel by getting rid of both well-set batsmen in the same over. First, Shakib-al-Hasan got a leading edge that was caught by David Miller, and then off the very next delivery Yusuf Pathan tried to go over midwicket only to get caught by Miller again. Karanveer went one better than Akshar to get both set batsmen dismissed off successive deliveries.
Suryakumar Yadav and Ryan ten Doeschate were the new men in for KKR. Suryakumar started off quite positively by hitting Rishi Dhawan for a six and a four off successive balls in the 17th over. In the next over, bowled by Karanveer, ten Doeschate hit two sixes off the first two balls and Suryakumar then hit a boundary off the penultimate delivery before getting bowled off the final ball.
Ryan ten Doeshchate struck a few meaty blows as well before being caught at the boundary in the penultimate over of the innings, bowled by Mitchell Johnson. Jonson conceded just three off the over. Three boundaries by Piyush Chawla in the final over bowled by Parvinder Awana pushed KKR to a competitive total in a high-pressure match.
Earlier, George Bailey won the toss and elected to field first. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) went in with the same team. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made just the one change, as leg-spinner Piyush Chawla came in to the side at the expense of R Vinay Kumar.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 163 for 8 (Robin Uthappa 42, Manish Pandey 21; Akshar Patel 2 for 11, Karanveer Singh 3 for 40) vs Kings XI PunjabÂ
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(Shiamak Unwalla is a reporter with Cricket Country. He is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek and Cricket fanatic who likes to pass his free time by reading books, watching TV shows, and eating food. Sometimes all at the same time. You can follow him on twitter at @ShiamakUnwalla)
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