Incisive new ball spells in helpful conditions by Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth ensured several trends continued - KingsXI Punjab main tallied their momentum with a fourth successive win while the Kolkata Knight Riders slumped to their fourth straight defeat Both innings were characterised try late bursts. Punjab hit 21 off their final over which put the match just beyond the reach of Kolkata, who scored 75 off overs 15 to 19, but still fell nine short after a sluggish start.
After Sreesanth removed Sourav Ganguly, slashing u» Pathan al third man, Pathan struck twice in one over to leave Kolkata reeling. Pathan has always been a dangerous liowlcr when he gets the ball swinging back into the right hand batsman and Mohammad Hafeez and Brad I lodge fell in die space of five balk. Sreesanth added Debradata Das to make it 29 for 4 after five were, the most wickets to fall in that space of time in the tournament, and when VRV Singh bowled laxnii Ratan Shukla at 50 for 5, Kolkata seemed to be heading for a massive defeat. David Hussey and young Wriddhiman Saha, however, had other ideas. *
The pair started slowly, playing out a couple of overs before I fussey took Gagandecp Singh, who had bowled two very tidy overs, for 17 runs, including a massive six over long-on. There was another quiet
over before the pair really turned it on. The big hits' were complemented by agile running between the wickets and they brought (lie equation down to 55 off 18 deliver ies. James Hopes, back after missing three games, served up several full losses which were promptly deposited into the crowd and when Gagandeep was taken for 18 in the penultimate over, the ctjuauon had come down to 19 off the last six balk, after I fussey was dismissed for a 46 ball 71.
Pathan kept his nerve and sent down a mix of yorkere and low full losses and despite some big swings only four runs came off the first three balls. There was no fairytale ending for Kolkata.
After Punjab chose to bat. several of their batsmen failed to capitalise on their starts three of their top five got into double digits but didn't make it to 20.1 lopes, coming in for Ramnaresh Sarwan, carved a few powerful boundaries square on the offside before top-edging Ashok Dinda to mid-on. Yuvraj Singh looked imperious, as in I he previous game, plundering 14 off an Hafeez over before over balancing to be stumped and Mahela layawardene lofted a huge six over nudwicket before miscuing a bouncer from Umar Gul to mid on.
Shaun Marsh, fresh from his match winning 1PL debut against Deccan Chargers. kejit his composure at the other end to make a pleasing 40 There were some cnsp drives in his knock, with one through the covers off Dinda early on standing out I le was stumped, missing a flighted delivery from Hussey, as Kolkata started to gain
the upper hand When Karan (kid was run out a couple of overs later. Punjab had slid to 106 for 5 from 82 Io I
Kumar Sangakkara, who retired on 10 with a side strain, returned to lead the fightback with Pathan He again demonstrated the importance of timing and placement in TVventy20 before departing for 28, bowled by Gul, who at USS 150,000 is providing competition to Shane Watson for being the bargain buy of the 1PL Pathan remained unbeaten on 24. but the acceleration al the end was provided try Piyush Chawla, who hit three fours and a six off Ishant Sharma's final over
It has been a stunning resur gence from Punjab, who after being bottom of die table after two games are now tied for top spot. Kolkata, though. haw gone in the opposite direction, dropping from table-toppers to four points behind the teams in the semi-final places.
SCORES IN BRIEF
KINGS XI PUNJAB: 178 for 6 in 20 overs (Marsh 40, Hopes 18. Sangakkara 28. Yuvraj 17. layawardene 10, Goel 6, Pathan 24 not out. Chawla 21 not out; Dinda 1 -24. Hafeez 1 28,1 fussey 1 23, Gul 2-27)
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: 169 for 6 in 20 overs (Hafeez 13, Ganguly 5, Das 5, Hodge 1, Hussey 71, Shukla 7, Saha 59 not out, Agarkar 1 not out. Sreesanth 2-25, Pathan 2-18, VRV Singh 1-31, Gagandeep 1 -43)
Result: Kings XI Punjab won by 9 runs.
Man-of - the - match: Irfan Pathan. Umpires: DJ Harper and I Shivram Toss: Kings XI Punjab.