The Kings XI Punjab production line of batsmen was under threat of being short-circuited again. But Akshar Patel strode in at No. 8 and clobbered 20 runs off the penultimate over to script a second successive victory in Mohali. The situation had not been too dire, but that cameo erased all doubts of the outcome of the match. Barbados Tridents, as their coach Desmond Haynes said, fought fire with fire when they amassed 174, but their bowling in the death could not keep to their disciplines.
Things had looked promising for Tridents when they got rid of Virender Sehwag and Glenn Maxwell in the space of 12 balls. Losing that much batting muscle with eight overs left and a run-rate climbing towards nine an over is never healthy. Unless you are Kings XI.
David Miller played an innings that didn’t quite exemplify his ‘in the arc out of the park’ though philosophy. He brushed past a few nervous moments against spin when Jeevan Mendis benefited from uncertain bounce. His timing was inconsistent, but found the boundary when needed most. Ashley Nurse was cracked for a six off the final ball of the 17th over. The equation reduced to 34 off 18. The last ball of the next one hurtled to the midwicket boundary to take it down to the wire. Kings XI needed 25 off 12 now. And then Akshar’s carnage began.
Ravi Rampaul went length to start the over. Akshar said thank you with a belt to long-on. He played the field off the next ball. With the leg side boundaries packed, he made some room and lofted a four through cover. An outside edge to the third man boundary added to the excitement before Rampaul targeted the batsman with a short ball. Akshar was backing away, he swung his bat to protect himself as much as anything and watched the ball sail over the square leg boundary. Rampaul was Tridents’ most experienced bowler. He had leaked 50 off his four overs.
BARBADOS TRIDENTS
EMDY Munaweera c Vohra b Awana 50
WKD Perkins lbw b Awana 10
RA Reifer not out 60
JL Carter c Miller b Anureet Singh 20
JEC Franklin c Awana b Perera 10
E Chigumbura c Anureet Singh b Perera 3
JO Holder c Miller b Awana 12
AR Nurse not out 8
Extras (lb 1) 1
Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 174
Did not batBMAJ Mendis, RR Emrit*, R Rampaul
Fall of wickets 1-54 (Perkins, 5.1 ov), 2-61 (Munaweera, 5.6 ov), 3-106 (Carter, 12.1 ov), 4-124 (Franklin, 14.4 ov), 5-131 (Chigumbura, 16.2 ov), 6-159 (Holder, 19.1 ov)
Bowling
Anureet Singh 4-0-32-1, P Awana 4-0-46-3, AR Patel 4-0-42-0, GJ Maxwell 3-0-22-0, V Sehwag 1-0-10-0, Karanveer Singh 1-0-6-0, NLTC Perera 3-0-15-2
KINGS XI PUNJAB
V Sehwag lbw b Mendis 31 25
M Vohra c Carter b Rampaul 27
WP Saha c Munaweera b Franklin 14
GJ Maxwell c Nurse b Rampaul 16
DA Miller not out 46
GJ Bailey c Franklin b Mendis 7
NLTC Perera c Carter b Nurse 0
AR Patel not out 23
Extras (b 4, lb 2, w 6, nb 2) 14
Total (6 wickets; 19.4 overs) 178
Did not batKaranveer Singh, P Awana, Anureet Singh
Fall of wickets 1-41 (Vohra, 3.4 ov), 2-76 (Saha, 7.6 ov), 3-95 (Maxwell, 9.6 ov), 4-103 (Sehwag, 11.5 ov), 5-127 (Bailey, 15.5 ov), 6-131 (Perera, 16.3 ov)
Bowling
JO Holder 3.4-0-38-0, R Rampaul 4-0-50-2, RR Emrit 2-0-17-0, JEC Franklin 2-0-17-1, BMAJ Mendis 4-0-18-2, AR Nurse 4-0-32-1
MATCH DETAILS
Toss – Kings XI Punjab, who chose to field
Points – Kings XI Punjab 4, Barbados Tridents 0
Player of the match – DA Miller (Kings XI Punjab)
Umpires – BF Bowden (New Zealand) and S Ravi
TV umpire – RJ Tucker (Australia)
Match referee – J Srinath
Reserve umpire – RM Deshpande
