Kings XI Punjab 134-9 (Mandeep Singh 38, David Hussey 32, Sunil Narine 5-19) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 132-7 (Debabrata Das 35*, Manvinder Bisla 27, Piyush Chawla 3-18) by 2 runs.

Piyush Chawla struck thrice at an important juncture as the smooth going Kolkata Knight Riders faced a mere two runs defeat from Kings XI Punjab in the IPL 2012.

Kings XI Punjab scored 134 runs with one wicket in hand in 20 overs and Kolkata Knight Riders fell short of two runs for the loss of seven wickets.

Sunil Narine (Kolkata Knight Riders) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his excellent spell of 5-19 in the allotted four overs.

The 17^th match of the Indian Premier League 2012 was held at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, the home of Kolkata Knight Riders, on April 15, 2012. A full Sunday home crowd witnessed the match and supported their team led by the owner of the squad, Shahrukh Khan who was present in the stadium but his team lost by a narrow margin.

Earlier, the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, Gautam Gambhir, won the toss and put Kings XI Punjab while predicting that his bowlers can restrict the visitors to a nominal score. The Kings XI Punjab was in trouble in the early moments of the game when they lost two quick wickets for just 21 runs in 4.2 overs that included their skipper, Adam Gilchrist and the promising Shaun Marsh.

Mandeep Singh and the experienced David Hussey came to the rescue of the team and put them on track by keeping the scoreboard moving with odd boundaries. The fifty of the partnership was posted in the 12^th over as Mandeep Singh was caught at deep midwicket by Ryan ten Doeschate off Shakib Al Hasan for 38 from 34 ball with one six and three fours.

The third wicket fell at 73 and after the addition of just 12 runs in the total, David Hussey became the next victim at his personal score of 32 off 31 balls with one six and a four. The bowers of Kolkata Knight Riders led by Sunil Narine took over from there and the batsmen found it hard to make the runs. However, they managed to score 134 for the loss of nine wickets at the end of the scheduled 20 overs.

Sunil Narine was the pick of the bowlers who grabbed 5 wickets for just 19 runs in four overs, Rajat Bhatia held two and Shakib Al Hasan claimed one wicket.

Kolkata Knight Riders started off well as Gautam Gambhir hit a couple of fours in the second over but lost the first wicket on the last ball as Jacques Kallis was gone for just one run. Manvinder Bisla came in next as Gambhir continued with his aggressive approach and added two more boundaries in the third over. Gambhir was unable to read the fourth ball of the fourth over and gave a return catch to the bowler, Dimitri Mascarenhas for 22 off 13 deliveries with 4 fours.

The second wicket was lost at 30 in 3.4 overs when Manoj Tiwary came in the centre and joined with the smooth going Bisla. The boundaries were hard to find and they could get just two of them in the next six overs but crept to 73 in 11.2 overs as Tiwary was declared leg before wicket off Bhargav Bhatt for 20 runs.

Piyush Chawla took over from the next over and struck twice for Kings XI Punjab while putting Kolkata Knight Riders on the back foot. He clean bowled Bisla for 27 off 25 balls with one six and a four and Yusuf Pathan faced the same fate three balls later without opening his account. Chawla shot another spear in the rival batting when Shakib Al Hasan was caught and bowled by him for just four runs.

Kolkata Knight Riders were reeling at 88-6 in 14.4 overs when Debabrata Das and Ryan ten Doeschate took command of the situation and especially the first was most aggressive of the two. Das dispatched a six on the last ball of the 15^th over to Chawla and followed by a couple of fours in the next over. The pace of scoring was kept on by the batsmen until the score reached 126 in 19 overs and they required nine runs to win from the last six balls.

Ryan ten Doeschate was bowled on the third ball off Harmeet Singh for 11 and Kolkat Knight Riders managed just four runs off the last three balls and lost the thriller by just two runs.

The Kings XI Punjab was the proud winner of the exciting encounter which they won in the end and gained two vital points.

Points secured by both teams at the end of the 17^th match of the IPL 2012:

Kings XI Punjab                   – 4 from 4 games.

Kolkata Knight Riders     – 4 from 5 games.