Kolkata: A commendable last over from Andre Russell fired Kolkata Knight Riders to a seven-run win over Kings XI Punjab in the IPL-9 tie at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
Chasing 164, the visitors got off to a bad start and were struggling at 13/3 in the third over before Glen Maxwell (68, 42b, 6x4, 4x6) and Wriddhiman Saha (24, 20b, 3x4) got the chase back on track. A late flurry by Axar Patel (21, 7b, 1x4, 2x6) put Punjab on the verge with 12 runs needed from the last over but Russell turned the tide around once and for all with a run out of Patel. Gurkeerat Singh was also run out in the next ball before Russell removed Swapnil Singh with an lbw to secure the victory.
Earlier, half-centuries from Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa gave KKR a perfect launch pad before Punjab pulled things back to restrict the hosts to a modest 164/3.
Put into bat, the two-time former champions once again got off to solid start with Gambhir (54 from 45 balls; 6x4, 1x6) and Uthappa (70 from 49 balls; 6x4, 2x6) setting up a firm foundation in a 101-run partnership from 13.3 overs.
It was their highest opening wicket stand this season, and third overall century partnership, that put them in right stead but their star duo of Yusuf Pathan and Andre Russell failed to bring up their last match's heroics to be content with a total which could have been much bigger.
Skipper Gambhir continued his sublime form to notch up his fourth half-century of the season, while his opening partner Uthappa too followed suit for his third fifty as KKR never had any trouble against an innocuous KXIP attack.
Vijay had to keep rotating his limited resources while Gambhir and Uthappa easily picked the loose balls on the slow surface. Restricting KKR to 40 in the powerplay was a decent effort by KXIP but the fact remained that they could not break the opening partnership with their attack lacking the sting.
As it turned out, all the three wickets to fall were run outs beginning with Gambhir, who was dismissed with a direct hit by Maxwell in the 14th over.
In the same over, Uthappa was dropped by Mohit Sharma at long off boundary.
Uthappa too became the victim of a run out from the non striking end after Yusuf remained static at his crease while his partner had run all the way down allowing
Mohit Sharma to ge the run out..
Earlier, Vijay sprang a surprise going ahead with three foreigners with Swapnil Singh and Manan Vohra coming in place for KC Cariappa and Shaun Marsh.
