IPL 10, Match 49, KXIP vs KKR - 5 Game Changing Moments

A desperate Kings XI Punjab side hosted a Kolkata Knight Riders side riding high on confidence after retaining their second place in the table. It was necessary for a win for the Punjab side to open up the points table from below and as it turned out, Glenn Maxwell’s side won the match by 15 runs to remain alive in the tournament.

Gautam Gambhir won the toss and elected to field first, sticking to their winning formula. KKR restricted the home team to a competitive total of 168. Maxwell and Saha were largely responsible for gaining momentum during the death.

In reply, despite a Chris Lynn show yet again in the IPL, Kolkata fell short of the required total due to some good bowling from Tewatia and Mohit Sharma. Mohit was elected as the man of the match for his brilliant bowling at crunch situations of the game. That said, here we look at the 5 game changing moments of the match.

1. Early breakthrough for KKR

Kolkata Knight Riders’ opening bowlers managed to keep Martin Guptill quite as he struggled towards 12 with a strike rate of 75. Umesh Yadav got the wicket of the positive-looking Manan Vohra as he departed for just 25. Guptill soon followed his partner as Sunil Narine clinched his wicket. The visitors gained the early advantage in the match as they restricted the home team to 45/2.

2. KKR chipping in with wickets to restrict Punjab

Even though Kuldeep Yadav proved to be expensive, he picked up a couple of crucial wickets to in the form of the accelerating KXIP skipper Glenn Maxwell and wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha. Chris Woakes affected three dismissals as he cleaned up Shaun Marsh and Swapnil Singh. Overall, KKR managed to keep a lid on the scoring rate by chipping in with wickets continuously.

Also read- IPL 10, Match 49, KXIP v KKR Review: Lynn’s heroics went in vain as some great death bowling gave KXIP a crucial win

3. Final flourish from KXIP batsmen

Glenn Maxwell and Wriddhiman Saha provided the much-needed impetus lower down the order with their respective innings. Saha hit an important 38 off 33 balls consisting of 2 fours and a maximum. Meanwhile, Maxwell played the captain’s knock as he scored a swashbuckling 25-ball 44 at a strike rate of 176.

His innings contained four humongous sixes and a boundary. When Axar Patel was finding it difficult to middle the ball, Tewatia chipped in with an essential 15-run cameo and propelled their score to a competitive 167 runs.

4. The Chris Lynn show

Chasing almost 170, Sunil Narine threatened yet again to repeat his exploits from the Chinnaswamy. However, his innings was cut short as he managed a quickfire 18 before his return was booked by Mohit Sharma. Chris Lynn though continued his domination in the IPL as he single-handedly endangered the Punjab score of 168.

With wickets falling around him, Lynn held one end up with his swashbuckling innings of 84 at a strike rate of 161.53 as he plundered the Punjab bowlers to all the parts of the ground, hitting eight boundaries and three sixes. His unnecessary run out, in the end, was the turning pointing of the match.

5. Tewatia-Mohit bind KKR

Rahul Tewatia and Mohit Sharma were responsible for breaking the back of the strong KKR lineup. Tewatia followed his cameo with an impressive spell of four overs where he picked up the important wickets of Gambhir and Uthappa. He gave away only 18 runs at an economy of 4 and a half.

Mohit put up an exhibition of brilliant death bowling as he managed to pick up two wickets and gave away only 24 runs in his three overs. He also picked up the important wicket of Sunil Narine. The duo together was responsible for restricting KKR to a total of 153.