Saurav Ganguly (86* runs of just 53 balls) pulls of a thriller to beat Kings XI Punjab by three wickets to end the roads of Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2008 on high note. Saurav Ganguly and Umar Gul (24 runs of 11 balls) partnership of 48 runs of just 17 balls guide his team to a victory which was looking way behind their reach at the end of 15th over. Needing 72 runs to win in the last five overs with only five wickets in hand no one expected Kolkata Knight Riders to win from here. In the 16th over they lost another wicket in the face of A. Chopra which pushed their chances of winning the games even further beyond their reach, but in the same over Umar Gul who just arrives to the crease smashed two huge sixes of J. Hopes over to pull down the required rate to 13 an over. In the 17th over Sauarav Ganguly open his arm to hit two huge sixes and a boundary of Piyush Chawla over to bring up his 3rd half century of IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders in the process lost Umar Gul for well made 24 runs. But Saurav kept his nerves till the end and smashed 15 runs in the last over which was bowled by I. Pathan to pull off a sensational win over Kings XI Punjab by three wickets. Chasing a target of 175 runs for victory Kolkata Knight Riders got of to good start as their openers put on 45 runs for the first wicket in just 5 overs. But two wickets in two balls by S. Sreesanth put them on back foot and thereafter they kept loosing wickets at regular intervals. Earlier Yuvraj Singh won the toss and decided to bat first and once again S. Marsh (40 runs of 31 balls) and K. Sangkara (64 runs of 45 balls) played brilliantly and put on 78 runs for the 2nd wicket before D. Mendis playing his first IPL match get rid of dangerous looking S. Marsh. In the end Yuvraj Singh (27 runs of 18 balls) and M.Jayawardne (11 runs of 10 balls) chipped in with quick run to guide their team to a highest total of 175/6 in Eden garden. Umar Gul was most impressive bowlers as he picked up four wickets during Kings XI Punjab inning. Umar Gul was declared Man of the Match. Match Summary Kings XI Punjab– 174/6 in 20 Overs K.Sangkara– 64 S.Marsh – 40 U.Gul– 4-0-23-4 D.Mendis– 4-0-24-1 Kings XI Punjab– 175/7 in 19.4 Overs S.Ganguly– 86* U.Gul- 24 S.Sreesanth– 4-0-33-2 V.R.V.Singh– 4-0-28-2 |
