KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS won two back to back matches as they defeated KINGS XI PUNJAB at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack very comfortably with 9 wickets to spare and with 2 overs left. Gautam Gambhir (C) the KKR skipper won the toss and decided to field first. Anyway, that decision of KKR skipper turned out to be a great one as KKR bowlers did a fabulous job to restrict KXIP to 149 runs where in the same ground they have scored 231 runs against CSK in the previous match of them. Virender Sehwag started things off for KXIP in style as he scored 72 runs in just 50 balls. But any other batsman of Punjab failed to take the responsibility with Sehwag. Glenn Maxwell and David Miller the most two heavyweight player of KXIP went early by just scoring 14 of 14 balls and 13 of 14 balls respectively.
When it comes to KKR’s bowling performance, they have done a brilliant job as Morne Morkel bowled an extraordinary spell by taking 2 wickets with the economy rate of 5.00. Piyush Chawla also supported him well against his old team, yet again he took 3 wickets against Punjab in IPL 7 by just considering 19 runs. Sunil Narine and Umesh Yadav shared two wickets equally.
Once again KKR reached their target of 150 runs very easily as they gave a steady batting performance for the second consistent time. Robin Uthappa (W) produced some quick runs in the start of KKR’s innings as he scored 46 runs of just 28 balls. After losing the wicket of Robin Uthappa, the rest of the job was done by Gautam Gambhir (C) and Manish Pandey. Gambhir and Pandey they both played a unbeaten innings of 63 runs of 45 balls and 36 runs of 35 balls to bring the most deserved and required victory for Kolkata. The lone wicket of Robin Uthappa was taken by Parvinder Awana.
Gautam Gambhir was given the Man of the Match award as he played a captain’s innings to keep his side alive in the tournament.