The Indian Premier League!: Match-20, KXIP vs KKR, Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali!

MATCH-20

KXIP vs KKR

Venue- Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali
Match Officials- C.Nandan, S.Taufel, K.Dharamsena(Umpires), R.Mahanama(Refree)

Toss- KKR won the toss and chose to field first

Result- KXIP won by 4 runs!

Man Of The Match- MS GONY

Match Report-

KXIP lost 2 consecutive matches before this one. On the other hand KKR won their previous battle comfortably! KKR, the defending champions were expected to goo and clinch a victory in Mohali! They started of pretty well, winning the toss and choosing to ball first, Gilchrist was trapped in front of the wickets, LBW, for just 6. By the time they got their second wicket, getting Vohra, the score was 62 runs in 8.4 overs. Mandeep Singh batted well at the other end. He scored 41(30) till he was caught behind on the bowling of Kallis. Hussey and Miller tried to stabilize the innings. But 15th over bowled by Narine turned the game. He first got Hussey caught behind, then got Mahmood caught by Narine himself and then bowled Gurkeerat Singh to take first Hat-trick of this season! n very next over Miller was bowled by Sri-Lankan spinner Senanayake. The KXIP were drowning at that point, 109/7 after 16 overs. But there was another twist in the tale, MS Gony of KXIP hit Balaji for 15 runs in the 18th over and Narine for 23 runs in the 19th! Due to his amazing innings of 41(18) KXIP managed to put up 157 runs on the board.

KKR had horrified start, as Bisla got out on the first ball of their chase. Kallis also didn't last longer. Then Eoin Morgan and Gautam Gambhir batted brilliantly together. They added 105 runs in 12 overs. Gambhir was gone in 14th over. They required 51 off last 6 overs. Morgan went in 15th over. Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan couldn't get going from the word go. Tiwary departed in 17th over's first ball for 1(7)! Mahmood got wicket of Das in the next over. 30 runs were required off 12 balls. Awana conceded 19 runs of first 5 balls that he bowled. Bhatia hit couple of sixes while Pathan hit a boundary. Awana came back and hit the stumps to dismiss Bhatia off the last ball. Pravin Kumar bowled the first ball wide of the last over. While Pathan ran 2 on the rebowled 1st ball. Pathan perished on the second ball of last over. Needing 8 runs of last 4 balls, Kumar just gave 3 runs, and KXIP upset the defending champions by beating them by 4 runs!

My Views-

When Gambhir and Morgan were batting, it looked like KKR will win the match comfortably with 1 or 2 overs to go! But the game changed rapidly. Both the set batsmen got out quickly. Tiwary and Pathan struggled. Bhatia tried his best but got out at wrong time. Over all it was a thrilling match. Credit to KXIP bowlers and fielders. MS Gony who was star for KXIP with bat, also did it with the ball, taking wicket of Gambhir, he gave away just 18 runs off his 4 overs. He was declared man of the match.