Match – 57 IPL 2014 – Qualifier 1 – Kings XI Punjab vs Kolkata Knight Riders
Date – Wednesday May 28
Time – 16:00 local | 10:30 GMT
Venue – Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Toss – Kings XI Punjab elected to field
Result – Kolkata Knight Riders won by 28 runs
Man of the Match – Umesh Yadav

Kolkata Knight Riders beat Kings XI Punjab to enter the finals of Pepsi IPL 2014. It was a superb all round performance by Kolkata which saw them beat the might Kings XI Punjab. KXIP’s strong batting line up crumbled under pressure today and thus lost the match by 28 runs. KXIP will now play in the second qualifier against the winner of Chennai vs Mumbai match to have one more shot at the finals.

Chasing 164 to win, Kings XI Punjab got off to a poor start as they lost Virender Sehwag for just 2 but Manan Vohra and Wriddhiman Saha built the innings and took the score to 45 at which Morkel got rid of Vohra. This wicket gave KKR the much needed break and they capitalized it. Umesh Yadav got rid of the dangerous Glenn Maxwell for just 6 and Piyush Chawla removed Killer Miller for 8. Wriddhiman Saha also got out to Morkel for 35 off 31 balls and KXIP looked in all sorts of problem with 87/6 in 13.3 overs. Captain George Bailey and Rishi Dhawan then raised some hope and hit few boundaries and sixes to keep the hunt on. But Al Hasan got rid of Dhawan and KXIP were 117/7 in 17.3 overs. Needing another 47 to win from 15 balls, George Bailey and Mitchell Johnson tried to hit few balls out of park. Eventually KXIP needed 30 to win from last over which and they could manage to score 135/8 and thus lost the match by 28 runs.

Earlier Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to field first. Kolkata Knight Riders lost captain Gambhir in the second over when the team score was just 2. But Robin Uthappa once again came to team’s rescue as he along with Manish Pandey gave KKR the momentum to score big. The duo was getting dangerous for KXIP but the 9th over change the whole scenario. Akshar Patel first got the priced wicket of highest run scorer in IPL Robin Uthappa and then three balls later that of Manish Pandey. KKR were reduced to 67/3 in 8.5 overs. Shakib Al Hasanand Yusuf Pathan then slowly built the innings but again twin strike by Karanveer in the 15th over pegged KKR back. Finally some good hitting by the lower middle and tail helped KKR post a decent total of163/8 in 20 overs.

Qualifier 1 IPL 2014 – Kings XI Punjab vs Kolkata Knight Riders Scorecard