Kolkata Knight Riders eased to an 8-wicket win with 21 balls to spare against hosts Kings XI Punjab at Mohali. It was a one-side contest at the PCA Stadium after the visitors had restricted the Kings XI Punjab to 124 for 7. KKR have picked up their third victory of the tournament playing six games so far.
Batting first after winning the toss, Kings XI Punjab lost their momentum when Skipper Adam Gilchrist had to retire hurt after pulling his hamstring while completing a single in the 6th over. The hosts then stuttered losing the key wickets of Shaun Marsh and David Hussey without causing much damage to find themselves at 87 for 4 in the 15th over. Gilchrist returned to the crease in the 17th over to finish at an unbeaten 40 from 30 balls with 3 fours and a six. His side struggled to get any big overs to end with a below par 124 for 7. Brett Lee and Sunil Narine took two wickets each for KKR.
It was an easy run chase for KKR with Skipper Gautam Gambhir scoring a fluent 66* from 44 balls with 7 fours and a six. Jacques Kallis finished the match with him on an unbeaten 30 from 23 balls with 2 fours and a six. Gambhir got the Man of the Match award for his 66*.
Toss and Teams: Hosts Kings XI Punjab have won the toss and elected to bat first at the PCA Stadium, Mohali against Kolkata Knight Riders. The last time these two teams met not so long ago, KKR were handed over a shock defeat by 2 runs. While that game was played on a square turned, tonight’s match will be at a greenish Mohali pitch which did quite a lot for the seam bowlers then.
As the pitch demands, KKR have brought back Brett Lee and L Balaji in their XI. Brendon McCullum also comes back into the KKR team. Shakib Al Hasan and Ryan ten Doeschate miss out for the visitors. Kings XI Punjab have brought in Paul Valthaty in the place of Bipul Sharma.
Kings XI Punjab: AC Gilchrist (Captain and Wicket Keeper), P Dogra, DJ Hussey, SE Marsh, PC Valthaty, Mandeep Singh, AD Mascarenhas, PP Chawla, Harmeet Singh, P Kumar, BA Bhatt
Kolkata Knight Riders: BB McCullum, G Gambhir (Captain), MS Bisla (Wicket Keeper), JH Kallis, MK Tiwary, YK Pathan, R Bhatia, DB Das, SP Narine, L Balaji, B Lee
