IPL 10, Match 11, KKR vs KXIP Review: Gautam Gambhir fires KKR to the top of the table

Kolkata Knight Riders are on fire. After a thumping victory in the first game and a thrilling match against Mumbai, Kolkata have turned the heat up. Match 11 of the Indian Premier League season 10 saw Kolkata demolish the inform Kings XI Punjab.

The game started well for the Knight Riders as their captain won the toss and chose to take the field hoping to find a friend in dew later on in the match. With Chris Lynn ruled out for the rest of the season, Kolkata had a tough call to make.

Instead of going for a like for like replacement Gambhir and the team management went for Colin de Grandhomme, the New Zealand all-rounder. For Kings XI Punjab, Ishant Sharma came into the side in place of T Natarajan otherwise the side was all the same.

Manan Vohra and Hashim Amla gave Punjab a nice start with a 53 run partnership. Piyush Chawla broke this partnership with a good delivery as he cleaned Manan Vohra apart.  Hashim Amla was finding it hard out there as he used up too many deliveries up top scoring 25 of 27 balls. Marcus Stoinis was sent up the order this time as Axar Patel failed to make a mark at number three position but like Patel, Stoinis too failed.

Narine worked his magic as he bowled Stoinis bringing in Glenn Maxwell. When it comes to T20s the skipper of Kings XI Punjab knows only one way. Maxwell started his innings with intent and scored 25 of just 14 deliveries before succumbing to Umesh Yadav.

Umesh Yadav carried his Test form into the T20s as well as he bagged a four-wicket haul. His scalps were the whole middle order of Punjab as he pocketed Miller, Saha, Maxwell and Patel. The Punjab batters contributed equally to reach a total of 170 giving KKR a decent total to chase.

As they have in the previous matches, KKR started off brilliantly. There was a wave of astonishment when Sunil Narine came out with Gautam Gambhir. This was the fifth time when a bowler had opened the innings in the IPL. This was not the first time Sunil had opened the innings, he did so for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League as well.

The experiment of opening the innings with Narine and Gambhir was a successful one. After having players like Gayle, Ponting, McCullum, Lynn, Uthappa open the innings for them, Sunil Narine helped them get their highest score in powerplay in the history of IPL.

Narine started off brilliantly and so did the skipper Gambhir. The former really set the tone of the KKR innings as he smashed every other delivery to the boundary. There was only one thing on his mind and that was to get KKR off to a good start and so he did. He scored 37 of just 18 deliveries helping his team to 76 in six overs.

He hit three sixes and four boundaries to score his quickfire 37. Gautam Gambhir, on the other end, was busy doing the same. He carried his inning on as he went on to take his team home with another half century.  Gambhir scored 72 runs of 49 deliveries hitting eleven boundaries in the process. He hooked up with Uthappa and Manish Pandey to finish the game off in just 16 overs.

KKR look like the strongest team in terms of bench strength and the balance of the playing eleven as well. It will be extremely hard for any team to overcome this side of KKR with ease as they are the favorites to lift the trophy this year.

Brief Score:

KKR vs KXIP – KKR won by 8 wickets

Kings XI Punjab – 170/9 20 overs (Vohra 28, Miller 28, Yadav 4/33, Woakes 2/30)

Kolkata Knight Riders – 171/2 16.3 overs (Gambhir 72, Narine 37, Aaron 1/23)

Man of the match: Sunil Narine

Points Table Here.