Earlier Delhi Daredevils won the toss and put KKR to bat first.  Opener Brenden McCullum (6) perished for an lbw decision (though not conclusive as per TV replay) for an Ashish Nehra delivery. Brad Hodge, Morne van Wyk, and Wriddhiman Saha returned to the pavilion with ducks. Sourav Ganguly (44) and Ajit Agarkar (39) put up a good show, but could not help the team getting a poor total of 123/8.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra took 3 wickets and was adjudged Man of the Match.

The chasing of KKR’s respectable total of 154/3 was made to look like a cake-walk by Gowtham Gambir with a fine knock of 71 not out.  He worked well to have the first wicket partnership of 60 runs with David Warner (36) and again with TM Dilshan (42), till both of them safely reached shores in winning with 157/1. The crowd watched with awe, the pulling of sixes, striking boundaries in style and making singles and doubles with fine understanding between them. Bowlers like Ishant Sharma and Moises Henriques were very generous in donating 43 and 36 runs in their 4 over spell each, with Ajit Agarkar capturing the only wicket of Warner.

Earlier KKR won the toss and elected to bat first. True that their batsmen put in their best efforts. Opener Morne van Wyk scored 74 runs in 48 balls with 11 fours; Captain McCullum struck 3 sixes and 1 four in his 29 ball 35 runs; and Henriques tried his best with 30 not out to get a fairly good total of 154 just for the fall of 3 wickets.  But they were outplayed by Delhi Daredevils team to get to the top place of the points tally with 10 points in 8 matches.

Gowtham Gambir got the Man of the Match award for his superb performance with the bat.

Watch the tussle holding your breath and this is what the audience did today at the IPL match between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkatta Knight Riders.

Mahela Jayawardane and Irfan Pathan of Punjab Team are the batsmen. It boils down to 2 runs in 2 balls to win the match by reaching a total of 154. Ajit Agarkar is the bowler, who sends the first of the two balls to Jayawardane. The batsman gets a single only. The scores are level. The last ball to be faced by Irfan Pathan should produce the winning run. Ajit Agarkar bowls….Irfan Pathan very confidently strikes at the center of the ball, which flies to the boundary.  Thus Kings XI Punjab wins the match, which now pushes Kolkatta Knight Riders out of the IPL contest virtually.

Earlier Kokatta Knight Riders won the toss and batted first.  Brad Hodge put a superior performance with his bat till the end, to accumulate 70 runs not out. Sourav Ganguly (22); Captain Brenden McCullum (19); Morne van Wyk (18); and Chris Gayle (17) – all of them contribute their mite to push up the team total to a respectable 153/3 at the end of 20 overs.  Understandably KKR was in a dire situation to win all their remaining 7 matches to stay in the contest and the batsmen of the team put up a good show.  But the batsmen of Punjab team out-performed them – Sunny Sohal (25); Simon Katich (34); Mahela Jayawardane (52 not out); Yuvaraj Singh (14) and Iran Pathan (19).

Mahela Jayawardane for his unbeaten 52 got the Man of the Match award.

Earlier Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat.  Opener Sanath Jayasuria packed off early with 6 runs, caught behind by Wyk off Ashok Dinda. Harbajan Singh promoted to 3rd bat also went with 6 runs by a Murali Karthik delivery. Sachin Tendulkar was out for 34 runs in 30 balls.  It was J.P. Duminy who batted with courage till the end of the Innings (52 not out) responsible for the respectable total of 148/6.

For his superior batting performance in getting 52 runs and capturing the wickets of Brad Hodge by a run out and Morne van Wyk with a catch, JP Duminy was adjudged as the Man of the Match.

29th March Cricket Coverage: It was bat and ball play with nerves between Bangalore Royal Challengers and Kolkatta Knight Riders that took upto the last but one ball to seal off the nerve-wrecking win for Bangalore. Mark Boucher hit a boundary off Chris Gayle to finish the winning shot, which took the score to 143/5 against KKR’s 139/6.  Boucher’s unbeaten 25 came off 13 balls with a six and a four with Manish Pandey at the other end (2). Jacques Kallis and Shreevats Goswami laid the foundation well for Bangalore with an opening stand of 69 runs. Bangalore Captain Pietersen (13) and Virat Kohli (19) were taken in one over by Brad Hodge to rattle Bangalore.

Earlier KKR won the toss and elected to bat. Their captain Brenden Mccullum was out with a duck by the part-time bowler Kevin Pietersen in his first over. Kumble sent off Brad Hodge for (17) plumb in front for a fine delivery. Sourav Gangully pulled Praveen Kumar to deep mid-wicket for Kallis to take an easy catch.  Morne van Wyk (44 not out) and Chris Gayle (40) were the top scorers for Kolkatta to take the score to 139/6. Kolkatta were losing wickets at regular intervals so as not to put a defendable total.

Mark Boucher was adjudged as the Man of the Match for his steely nerve in the final overs.