KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS has tested the success of IPL once again as the defeated KINGS XI PUNJAB in the Final of IPL 7 in a nail biting high scoring match. The KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir earlier in the match won the toss and decided to chase the runs which they have done beautifully throughout the tournament. However, KKR got a good start as in the halfway of the first innings Punjab only managed to put up 58 runs by losing 2 wickets of Virender Sehwag and George Bailey (C). But the boy from Kolkata Wriddhiman Saha (W) played an extraordinary innings to get 141 runs in the next 10 overs against Kolkata, what an irony.
Wriddhiman has really warmed up the final by scoring the third century of IPL 7; he scored 115 runs in 55 balls with the strike rate of 209.09. Who would have thought that Punjab will get 199 runs on their board when Maxwell and Miller did not play big innings? Yeah that’s the beauty of IPL finals.
KKR bowlers haven’t performed really well in the second half of the first innings. however Piyush Chawla claimed 2 wickets by considering 44 runs. Shakib Al Hasan was the only economy bowler for KKR as he conceded only 26 runs while every other bowlers bowled with the economy rate of almost 10 per over. Believe it or not Sunil Narine was the most expensive bowler for KKR as he took 1 wicket by considering 46 runs in his allotted 4 overs.
While chasing such a huge score of 200 runs, KKR lost the most important wicket of Robin Uthappa (W) very early, but still they managed to bring back the glory of IPL yet again after 2012. Gautam Gambhir (C) and Manish Pandey made a decent partnership in the first 6 overs, but double G threw away his wicket in the first ball of the seventh over. However, Manish Pandey continued his match winnings innings with Yusuf Pathan, who have scored 36 runs of 22 balls.
Well, Pandey (94 runs of 50 balls) was 6 runs away from century when he got back to pavilion, here comes the turning point of the match, 15 runs were needed in the last 2 overs and KKR lost all the specialist batsman at that time but in the last ball of 19th over Piyush Chawla smashed the ball away for six. Chawla 13 runs of 5 balls) in the last over scored the winning runs with a four to win the IPL 7 for KKR and he has also played the most valuable short innings for Kolkata ever.
Akshar Patel emerging player of IPL 7 has bowled yet another emerging spell against KKR as he conceded 21 runs in his allotted 4 overs but sadly, every other bowlers of KXIP conceded over 40 runs against KKR batting line up, though Karanveer Singh has picked up 4 wickets but he concede 54 runs.
Manish Pandey was given the Man of the Match award, he really takes away the night for the knights. Kieron Pollard got the best catch award and Robin Uthappa was given the orange cap award as he is the highest run-scorer of IPL 7. Mohit Sharma claimed the purple cap of IPL 7.