Kings XI Punjab’s reign at the top continued with a 23-run win over the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL match at the Zayed Cricket Stadium here on Saturday night. After posting a modest 132 for nine, the victor restricted the Kolkata side to 109 in a bowler-dominated contest.
The Knight Riders were off the blocks in a fashion that was hardly inspiring, their top quartet taking a tumble with the total barely touching 50. With the Punjab bowlers making steady inroads, the Knight Riders batsmen showed little staying power, callously undoing the good work their bowlers had put in earlier.
Robin Uthappa was a shade trigger-happy, setting out for singles at high risk, one of which proved suicidal. Yusuf Pathan was either terribly out of touch or simply indifferent, almost allowing himself to be trapped in front by Rishi Dhawan.
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Piyush Chawla, no greenhorn with the bat and a spinner himself, stepped out to Akshar Patel and found himself caught horribly out of bounds.
Surya Kumar Yadav provided the lone if not the last bastion of resistance, his 17-ball 34 proving that his more fancied forerunners could have been among the runs too.
When the contest began, Cheteshwar Pujara’s had two early reprieves, Morne Morkel the unfortunate one in their exchanges. The opener returned after Morkel, who had him caught behind, was found overstepping. The batsman was again ‘caught’ by Gambhir off the free hit arising out of the no-ball. But his luck ran out after that.
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Glenn Maxwell arrived after Wridhiman Saha was trapped leg before by Kallis. The orange cap holder’s confidence was evident as he nonchalantly reverse-swept Sunil Narine to the ropes.
A silence descended on the ground when Maxwell fell. Attempting to play a Morkel thunderbolt across the line, the bat was a critical quarter of a second late in making its appointment with the ball, and the leg stump simply erupted from the earth.
David Miller, an able foil in the flaying of bowlers, made an early exit too, caught by Morkel off Chawla, and the same combo got rid of George Bailey too.
The Punjab innings ran out of steam when the wily leggie pegged back Sehwag’s middle stump. Until then the opener had been the steadying influence to the Punjab innings.
As if to underscore skipper Gambhir’s view, the Kolkata bowlers had put their side in a position to score victory, Chawla (three for 19) and Narine (three for 24) sharing the spoils. With this fine display, the purple cap was planted firmly on the Caribbean tweaker’s head.