IPL 6: Miller, Mandeep Singh secure a thrilling win for Kings XI

Kings XI Punjab 186 for 3 (Miller 80*, Mandeep 77*) beat Pune Warriors 185 for 4 (Finch 64) by 7 wickets

The wicket at Mohali was a perfect batting strip despite a tinge of grass that was present at the wicket. The ball was coming onto the bat nicely and the Pune Warriors exploited it perfectly and posted a competitive total of 185. But wasn’t good enough as David Millers’ brilliant innings of 80* took the home side to a thrilling seven-wicket victory.

David Miller came to bat at a critical situation when the Kings XI Punjab were reeling at 58/3 at the end of the 7th over. Miller and Mandeep re-constructed the innings and were timing the ball to perfection. Miller put on a wonderful partnership of 128 runs with Mandeep Singh to secure a win for the Kings XI Punjab. Mandeep Singh anchored the innings brilliantly as he kept the scoreboard ticking and did not mount the pressure on Miller to score the runs.

The duo batted sensibly as they did not do more than what was required at that stage. They did not take the aerial route till the 15th over of the match, as they ensured that they had wickets in hand for the final surge. Miller was the dominant partner as he took the attack to the Pune Warriors from the 16th over as he scored 12 runs. Dinda bowled an excellent 18th over as he conceded just eight runs to turn the heat on Kings XI Punjab. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was constantly finding the block hole and kept the check on Mandeep and Miller as he conceded eight runs, to bring the equation to 29 runs off 12 balls.

Miller started the penultimate over off Dinda with a glorious boundary straight down the ground, followed by a four through deep point, which turned the heat on Dinda. He conceded 13 runs in that over to reduce the equation to 16 runs off 6 balls. Aaron Finch was spot on with his field placement in the final over as he had three men controlling the boundary line on the off-side for David Miller. Luke Wright also was spot on with his length as his first two deliveries were fuller in length. But the third delivery was a full toss; Miller smashed it over deep-extra cover rope for six. The fifth delivery was a low full toss around the off-stump that Miller smoked over long-off to give the Kings XI a thrilling seven-wicket win.

Pune Warriors bowlers bowled extremely well with the new-ball as they grabbed the wicket of Gilchrist and Mahmood within the first six overs. But they did not maintain the pressure with the wicket of Azhar Mahmood as they bowled too many loose deliveries.

Following the wicket of Mahmood, Vohra played a good little innings of 22. Vohra and Mandeep Singh took the pressure off as the duo managed to find atleast one boundary per over. Just as Vohra looked in good rhythm, he was dismissed by Yuvraj. Miller had a significant task at hand with the required rate more than 12.00 runs per over. However, Miller and Mandeep secured a win for the Kings XI.

“Difficult decision at the toss, looked like a beautiful wicket. Great chase, you are dealing with small boundaries on one side and big on the other, you are trying to balance it out. Vohra played an important little innings there” said Gilchrist.

Pune Warriors would have hoped for a better fielding performance, especially in the slog overs. They were sloppy, fumbling chances and missing couple of run-out attempts.

Kings XI Punjab bowlers did not have a great day as they were not able to find the perfect line at this wicket that aided batsmen. Praveen Kumar, Azhar Mahmood and Manpreet Gony were not able to get the length right and Aaron Finch and Uthappa classically exploited. Praveen Kumar went for 9 runs in his first over and Azhar Mahmood went for 11 runs in his first over, which indicated that the wicket was firm and good for batting.

Awana and Manpreet Gony curtailed the run-flow from the 11th over to 15th over. But Luke Wright’s late cameo of 34 runs off 10 balls took the Pune Warriors score past 180-odd runs. However, he was the villain for Pune Warriors as he bowled two loose deliveries at the 20th over to hand Kings XI Punjab a thrilling win.

Kings XI Punjab play their next game against Delhi Daredevils on April 23, while Pune Warriors play their next game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on the same day.