Kings XI Punjab produced a clinical performance to thrash Pune Warriors by eight wickets and start their Pepsi Indian Premier League campaign in an emphatic fashion, here today.
Angelo Mathews’ decision to bat first backfired badly as the home team batsmen produced another inept show posting a meagre 99 for nine in their 20 overs.
The chase was a cakewalk for KXIP as young IPL debutant Manan Vohra sent the Pune bowlers on a leatherhunt, finishing the lopsided contest in only 12.2 overs.
Manan (43 no, 7x4, 1x6) and Mandeep Singh (31) added 58 runs, including 21 in one Ashoke Dinda over, as the Preity Zinta co-owned team finished the match in a jiffy.
The match ended in a dramatic fashion when David Hussey’s flick shot was acrobatically caught at short mid-wicket by T Suman off Mitchell Marsh’s bowling. But TV replays showed that it was a no-ball and thus KXIP won the match.
It was a match in which KXIP outclassed their opponents in every department of the game.
The sheer dominance of the KXIP pacers was evident as the highest partnership for Pune was 25 and the top scorer was Abhishek Nayar with 25.
For KXIP, Azhar Mahmood and Praveen Kumar got two wickets apiece, giving away 19 and 31 runs respectively.
The slide started in the very first over as Manish Pandey (0), who has done nothing in the past two seasons to merit a place in the starting XI, failed yet again as he played on off the last delivery of Praveen Kumar’s first over.
T20 specialist T Suman (6) hit a boundary before holing out at mid-off, with veteran Azhar Mahmood being the bowler.
The Pune batsmen found it difficult to score on a wicket that had spongy bouncy but credit must go to KXIP bowlers as they were consistent in bowling to a particular line.