A brilliant lower-order counterattacking partnership between Yusuf Pathan and Andre Russell rescued the defending IPL champions from a batting collapse while chasing a modest total against Kings XI Punjab.
In a repeat of the 2014 final, Kings XI endured the worst possible start when Murali Vijay popped up a catch to Russell at mid-on before a run had been scored. The highly impressive Morne Morkel then removed Wriddhiman Saha, who scored a century in a losing cause when these sides met in last year’s final, and Russell dismissed Sehwag to reduce them to 27 for three.
It meant that the Australian limited-overs pair of Glenn Maxwell and George Bailey were batting in tandem, and they launched a counterattack, Bailey hitting back-to-back boundaries from his first two balls faced. Maxwell was then dropped badly at square-leg on 13, with Yusuf Pathan shelling a sitter.
Maxwell was eventually dismissed by Umesh Yadav for a 26-ball 33, his highest score of the season, after he and Bailey had added 67.
While Bailey remained belligerent , making 60 from 45, no one was able to stick with him. Rash shots continued to bring wickets and so the captain was unable to cut loose himself; had the Knight Riders been less sloppy in the field then Kings XI might have struggled more, but 155 for nine did not feel like enough.
Making a stuttering start to the chase, the Knight Riders lost Robin Uthappa lbw to Sandeep Sharma for 13 in the third over and Manish Pandey, caught at mid-on by Bailey off the same bowler, for 12 in the fifth, to leave them wobbling at 34 for two.
Suryakumar Yadav then hit two extraordinary sixes off of Mitchell Johnson, before being dismissed by Thisara Perera for 23. Things got worse in the following over when Gambhir and Ryan ten Doeschate were dismissed in consecutive balls – although the latter was the victim of a bad lbw decision having clearly inside-edged the ball into his pads.
Sandeep’s spell of four for 25 left the champions reeling at 60 for five, but Russell, who hit nine fours and two sixes before being bowled with the scores level, made 66 from 36 balls to guide his side home.
