Kings XI Punjab 186 for 3 (Miller 80*, Mandeep 77*) beat Pune Warriors 185 for 4 (Finch 64) by seven wickets
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Luke Wright went from hero to villain in the space of 100 minutes. His
cameo of 34 off 10 balls helped Pune Warriors post 185, but in the face
of an assault from David Miller and sensible support from Mandeep Singh,
Wright blinked and failed to defend 15 in the last over. Miller
finished it off with two lethal sixes, but don't forget how Mandeep kept
running back to the danger end to keep Miller on strike.
Both stayed unbeaten, Miller on 80 off 41 and Mandeep on 77 off 58.
Mandeep's was the first fifty for any Kings XI Punjab batsman this IPL.
The fielding all around was poor, but the batting and bowling towards
the end were high quality under pressure, in sharp contrast to some of
the inexplicable thrillers earlier in the tournament. Despite a patchy
appearance, this was a true surface where the ball came on, and it made
for good stroke-play. Both Mandeep and Miller needed that in abundance
after Kings XI had been 5 for 2 in the chase of 186, a result of shoddy
fielding and bowling from Kings XI.
Adam Gilchrist dropped a sitter from Warriors' third captain of the
season, Aaron Finch, and saw him add 63 more off 38. Misfields from
Kings XI punctuated the rest of the innings, and they added length
bowling in the end to their list of mistakes. First Yuvraj Singh, and
then, sensationally, Wright took full toll of that. Wright hit the first
six balls he faced for fours. Five of them were poorly pitched, and the
sixth, a yorker, poorly fielded.
Gilchrist's horror day continued when he edged a cut in the first over.
Ajantha Mendis, another one of Warriors' inclusions, worked immediately
as he got an lbw verdict against Azhar Mahmood with the first ball he
bowled. However, Mandeep and Manan Vohra, two of the Kings XI's young
Indian batsmen, started brightly, and the way they timed the ball, you
knew it wasn't going to be a stroll for Warriors.
Yuvraj came on to break that partnership, and Miller walked in with
close to 10 an over required for a duration of more than 13 overs. They
did it the difficult way. No six sixes or six fours, but through a
boundary every over, and some hard running between the wickets. Seven
continuous overs starting with the 10th had least a boundary; only one
of them went for two. The turnaround began with Miller hitting Yuvraj
over long-on in the 10th over, and was at its most destructive when
Miller hit Yuvraj's replacement, Mendis, for six and four in the 12th.
That boundary streak ended in the 17th over when Ashok Dinda nearly got
six yorkers in. After only eight runs - that too thanks to the running -
came off it, the asking rate finally crossed 12. With 37 required,
Finch took the risk, and asked Bhuvneshwar Kumar to bowl his last over.
Bhuvneshwar responded superbly. He did almost everything right, followed
the batsmen when they moved in the crease, got the yorkers in, kept it
down to just four off the first five balls.
Then misfortune struck. Mandeep edged the last ball through third man
for four. Still, the last two overs had swung the game in Warriors'
favour, and 29 were required off the last two. Mandeep was tiring, and
had lost all his timing. It was going to be down to Miller now. The
pressure was high, and the bowling had been good. Just then, though,
Dinda missed his yorker twice in a row, and Miller took that small
window of opportunity and placed both the full tosses for fours.
Dinda came back well, but let himself down by not collecting a throw
that would have run Miller out by a long distance. It was still
Warriors' game to lose with 18 required off seven balls. And how they
lost it.
Dinda finished his over off well, but a misfield from Rahul Sharma at
third man not only allowed Kings XI a bonus run, but kept Miller on
strike for the start of the final over. All his cards played out, Finch
had to go back to Wright, who got away with a short ball first up, and
bowled a good yorker to follow. Fourteen off four.
The field was now set for the wide yorker, but Wright got it wrong. He
bowled a full bunger in Miller's swinging range, and once again Miller
took that opportunity with a six over long-off. Wright came back with a
low full toss, which Miller couldn't get under. Single. Think again.
Mandeep turned that certain one into two, and snatched away whatever
little advantage the bowling side might have had.
With six required off two, Wright needed to get Miller off strike, but
he bowled another full toss, which Miller send crashing over long-off
again.
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Sidharth Monga
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