The Mohali stadium witnessed the clash between the hosts Kings Xl Punjab and the Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday, 19th April. Both teams had come in with a win in their previous match and were looking to continue with their winning ways. Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and chose to field first which has been the trend of this IPL.

Kings Xl Punjab had a slow start as the openers took time to get settled. Manan Vohra, who was looking rusty, lost his wicket when he offered an easy catch to Shakib Al Hasan. Murali Vijay and Shaun Marsh put on a small partnership as they could only score 41 runs by the end of powerplay. The scoring rate further slowed down when the spinners came into bowl. The wicket was pretty sluggish which helped the bowlers pick up wickets at regular intervals and stem the flow of runs. The recently returned Sunil Narine bowled well and ended up with bowling figures of 2-22. Shaun Marsh anchored the innings at one end and scored 56 off 41 balls as Kings Xl managed to reach a total of 138.

Kings Xl Punjab’s bowler had to come up with a special performance if they wanted to out-class the Knight Riders. KKR went behind the bowlers from the very first ball when Robin Uthappa helped a delivery down the leg to the fine leg boundary. It was a poor bowling performance from Kings Xl Punjab with the new ball as KKR scored 65 runs in the power play. Uthappa scored a quick fire 53 from 28 balls as he put on a partnership of 82 runs in 51 balls along with the skipper. Kings Xl Punjab spinners tried to get Punjab back into the game, as Axar Patel and Pardeep Sahu managed to get two wickets each, but it was too little too late. KKR cruised to their total with 17 balls to spare and six wickets in hand. KKR managed to catapult to the top of the table with this win. KKR seem to be on the perfect track for the playoff spot.