The Indian Premier League!: Match-29, KXIP vs PWI, Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali!

MATCH-29

KXIP vs PWI

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

Toss- KXIP won the toss and chose to field first

Result- KXIP won by 7 wickets with 1 ball to spare!

Man Of The Match- DAVID MILLER

Match Report-

It was a strange wicket at PCA in Mohali. There was a big green patch right in the middle and at both the ends it was nice and hard wicket. Gilchrist won the toss and chose to bowl first. On the other hand PWI dropped Mathews and Finch was named captain for the match. Uthappa and Finch started off brilliantly. Scoring 48/0 in the powerplay overs was a sign that it was a good batting pitch! In 11th over Awana took wicket of Uthappa to break the partnership of 83 runs. Finch[64(42)] and Yuvraj[34(24)] played according to the situation. After Finch's dismissal, Steve Smith couldn't get going but when Yuvraj got out in 18th over, Luke Wright came in and played a blinder. He made 34 in just 10 balls to get the score to 185/4 in 20 overs!

While chasing a big total, Gilchrist's poor run in the season continued as he was caught behind on the 3rd ball of the innings. Ajanta Mendis who was playing his first match this season got rid of Mahmood who was promoted up the order. He went without opening his account! Then the two uncapped players, Manan Vohra and Mandeep Singh stabled the innings with a partnership of 53 in 5 and half overs. Yuvraj Singh bowled Vohra for 22(13), when KXIP were 58/3 in 7th over! After the dismissal of Vohra, David Miller and Mandeep Singh didn't look back! They required 127 runs in 13 overs when Vohra got out! Miller and Mandeep fought till the end and shared unbeaten partnership of 128 runs to see the team through! Last 4 overs, KXIP required 45 runs to win, Dinda gave away just 8 in 17th and also Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave 8 in 18th! With 29 requiring from last 2, Miller hit Dinda for 2 fours and got 13 runs in the 19th over. Aaron Finch went to Luke Wright to bowl the final over and try to defend 16 runs. Wright started off well, giving only 2 runs off first 2 balls. But Miller hit a six on the next ball and took a couple on the 4th ball. With 4 required off last 2 balls, Miller hit a six over long on to register a win against the PWI! Mandeerp Singh 77(58) and David Miller 80(41) shared a match winning partnership! Miller was named Man Of The Match!

My Views-

PWI were too complacent after they got the big wickets of Gilly and Mahmood. They were unable to break the partnership of Mandeep and Miller. But they kept the scoring rate down. Requiring 45 in last 4 overs it would have been anybody's game. Dinda missed some yorkers by couple of inches which went for fours. Luke Wright also missed his yorker in the later part of his final over. Though they can take lots of positive from batting perspective from this match. Finch is in brilliant form. Yuvraj is getting his rhythm right. And inclusion of Wright paid off as he hit 34 in just 10 balls!
On the other hand it was a great win for the KXIP! They were in trouble 5/2 in 2 overs with Gilly and Mahmood out. Before this match they didn't have any half century by their players in this year's IPL and they got 2 of them against the PWI! And both of them being unbeaten and match winning innings!