Kolkata Knight Riders beat Kings XI Punjab by 3 wickets to win their second Indian Premiere League title in 3 years; Manish Pandey scores a brilliant 94 of 50 balls
Kolkata Knight Riders lift the IPL 7 trophy
Bangalore: Manish Pandey struck a brilliant 94 off only 50 balls to help Kolkata Knight Riders trump Kings XI Punjab by three wickets and win IPL-7. This was KKR’s second title-win in three years. Pandey was well supported by Yusuf Pathan (36) and skipper Gautam Gambhir (23).
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Kolkata Knight Riders lifting the IPL 7 trophy. Pic/ PTI
Earlier, Wriddhiman Saha played a career defining innings as his magnificent century propelled KXIP to a competitive 199 for four at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Manish Pandey (L) who scored 94 and Wriddhiman Saha who scored an unbeaten 115. Pic/ PTI
Saha walked into the record books by being the first ever player to score a century in the IPL final as his unbeaten 115 off 55 balls had 10 fours and eight sixes. Saha and Vohra were swift yet brutal in their shot-making as they added a whopping 129 off 12 overs after Kings XI Punjab looked in a spot at 58 for two after the front 10.
Lucky Saha
The back-10 got them as many as 141 runs thanks to the brilliant counter-attack by the Bengal stumper. Vohra, a surprise retention at the start of the season scored 67 off 52 balls with six fours and two sixes.
He was lucky on 62 as Robin Uthappa collected the ball in-front of the stumps while trying to stump him. But he was out trying to slog Chawla. The day belonged to Saha, who was in a mood to punish the spinners but played some equally good shot against the pacers including a hook shot off Morne Morkel.
Expensive Narine
Sunil Narine, who decided to give Test cricket a miss was especially clobbered for 46 runs in his four overs. Saha completed his century off 49 balls hitting Narine over long-on for a six which Suryakumar Yadav nearly got his hand. Virender Sehwag’s (7) fans, who were expecting another swashbuckling innings were left disappointed as the veteran didn’t execute the pull-shot off a well-directed bouncer from Umesh.
The numbers game
1 - The number of times Kings XI Punjab have scored 150-plus against Kolkata Knight Riders in four meetings this season
2 - The number of times George Bailey has batted at No 3 in the IPL — both times at the Chinnaswamy Stadium
3 - The number of IPL titles won by Yusuf Pathan — the most by any player. He also won the title with RR in 2008 and 2012 with KKR
11.50 - Kings XI Punjab’s Glenn Maxwell’s average in the last eight matches compared to 57.50 in the first eight
58 - Kings XI Punjab’s score vs Kolkata Knight Riders at the end of 10 overs yesterday is their lowest 10-over score in IPL-7
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