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Chandigarh: A late bowling surge by Kings XI Punjab helped them pull off a thrilling victory by 4 runs over Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL 6 match at PCA Stadium in Mohali.
Earlier, after putting up an impressive 105-run stand, Gautam Gambhir and Eoin Morgan fell in quick succession thereby turning the momentum of the match in favour of Punjab.
Chasing a 158-run target, Knight Riders skipper Gambhir fell after he played a gem of an innings right before Morgan (47) fell prey to Azhar Mahmood.
Manpreet Gony, who shined with the bat for Punjab, got the all-important breakthrough when he had Gambhir caught behind the wicket by skipper Adam Gilchrist.
Mahmood then added further misery on the Knight Riders when he dismissed Morgan and Debabrata Das to help Punjab stage a possible comeback.
Gambhir, who scored 60 off 39 balls, dominated the Punjab bowlers by hitting 9 boundaries and put up a scintillating partnership with Morgan to take control of their 158-run chase.
The Gambhir-Morgan duo steadied the KKR chase at a time when their team needed it the most after losing opener Manvinder Bisla and Jacques Kallis early.
Earlier, the Knight Riders suffered an early jolt when Praveen Kumar struck first for Punjab on the very first ball to scalp Bisla (0).
Soon after, Mahmood struck to dismiss the dangerous Kallis (1) to hinder Kolkata's chase of 158.
Earlier, after Punjab's batting crumbled against a fiery KKR bowling attack, Manpreet Gony's onslaught helped hosts reach 157/9.
Gony's blistering 42 runs in just 18 balls with the help of 4 boundaries and 3 sixes helped revive the Punjab innings right after mystery spinner Sunil Narine completely bamboozled the Punjab batsmen.
Gony along with Piyush Chawla (11*) helped put up a swift 41-run partnership for the 8th wicket right at a time when all hope seemed lost for the Kings.
In the first hat-trick of Indian Premier League's elite sixth edition, Narine dismissed David Hussey, Mahmood, Gurkeerat Singh to leave Punjab in a state to total despair.
Narine first got Hussey (12) when the Aussie was caught by wicketkeeper Bisla and then carried on to dismiss Mahmood and Gurkeerat to assert his dominance.
Earlier, Punjab continued to struggle when Kallis joined the party by dismissing Mandeep Singh (41) when the Punjab opener nicked the ball straight to Bisla.
Mandeep put up a steady 37-run partnership with Manan Vohra after the Kings lost their skipper Adam Gilchrist (7) early in the match when Sachithra Senanayake caught the Aussie plumb.
Soon after, Lakshmipathy Balaji struck for Knight Riders again to dismiss Vohra (17) by catching him off his own bowling. Mandeep hit 6 boundaries in innings, while Vohra had a couple of boundaries to his credit.
Senanayake then rubbed more salt on the Punjab wound when he added another wicket to his tally by getting the better of David Miller's stumps.
Earlier, KKR skipper Gambhir put the hosts into bat by winning the toss.
Punjab have made two changes for this match with Miller coming in for Ryan Harris and Manpreet Gony coming in for R Satish. On the other hand, KKR bring in Debabrata Das for the injured Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Manvinder Bisla (wk), Gautam Gambhir (Capt), Jacques Kallis, Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Eoin Morgan, Rajat Bhatia, Debabrata Das, Sachithra Senanayake, Sunil Narine, Lakshmipathy Balaji.
Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (Capt and wk), Mandeep Singh, David Hussey, David Miller, Azhar Mahmood, Manan Vohra, Gurkeerat Singh, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Manpreet Gony, Parvinder Awana.
Brief scores
Kings XI Punjab 157 for 9 (Gony 42, Mandeep 41, Kallis 3-24, Narine 3-33, Senanayake 2-28)
Kolkata Knight Riders 153 for 9 (Gambhir 60, Morgan 47, Mahmood 3-21, Praveen 2-26)
Result Kings XI Punjab won by 4 runs
Points Kings XI Punjab 2, Kolkata Knight Riders 0
MOM Manpreet Gony (Kings XI Punjab)
