IPL 2017 | Yadav, Gambhir secure first home win for KKR

Winning the toss, Gautam Gambhir cited the dew factor as the biggest reason for opting to field first as IPL returned to the Eden Gardens. The hosts, KKR handed Colin de Grandhomme his first cap in the IPL along with Umesh Yadav and Piyush Chawla also walked into the team to replace Chris Lynn, Ankit Rajpoot, and Kuldeep Yadav. Punjab made just one change bringing Ishant Sharma to the squad in place of T. Natarajan.

Punjab made their intentions clear right from the get-go as Hashim Amla smashed Trent Boult for two boundaries in the first over - one square of fine-leg and the other fine. Manan Vohra joined the action in the second over by hitting comeback man Umesh Yadav for a six square of the wicket and followed it up by smashing Boult for a couple of boundaries on either side of the pitch. Just as Punjab were appearing to look like they were running away with the early honors, having scored 53 runs in five overs, a Chawla flipper crashed into Vohra’s wicket and gave the sea of KKR fans something to rejoice. A couple of overs later, Sunil Narine struck to send Marcus Stoinis packing which brought Glenn Maxwell to the crease. The Punjab captain looked as menacing as ever scoring 14 runs off the first three balls of Chawla’s over, taking Punjab to 95/2 at the midway point.

Kolkata were staring down the barrel and needed some inspiration from somewhere. And it was provided to them by their go to man, Sunil Narine, and the newcomers. The West Indian gave away just two runs in the 11th over putting pressure on the visitors. It paid off immediately as de Grandhomme picked up the wicket of Amla in the next over but an even bigger prize was also waiting in the next over. Yadav, who had been brought into the team keeping in mind the Eden wicket, got rid of Maxwell before he could do some serious damage. Keeping with the trend of the game, the Kings started building again and over the next two overs, David Miller and Wriddhiman Saha scored 30 runs as Punjab began dreaming of an 180+ score again. But the see-saw match that was transpiring in Kolkata had yet another twist when Yadav, playing his first game of the tournament this year, picked up three wickets in one over to bring the home side back into the game. Punjab still managed to finish their innings with a competitive score of 170/9.

Also read : WATCH | Punjab create history; run four runs on one ball

Chasing a target of 171, the Eden Gardens’ crowd was given a shock by their team as Sunil Narine was chosen to replace the injured Chris Lynn as a partner for Gautam Gambhir at the top of the order. The West Indian, Narine got off the mark with a boundary and Gambhir made his intentions clear as well, smashing the returning Ishant Sharma for two back to back fours. Having scored 15 runs off the first two overs, Kolkata showed no signs of slowing down as a Narine six and a couple of Gambhir boundaries got them 16 off the third. They went two better a couple of overs later as the Narine gamble appeared to have paid off big time. In an attempt to curb the flow of runs, Maxwell introduced Varun Aaron into the attack. The move paid off as the partnership was broken on the fourth ball but it came at a cost with Narine scoring 16 runs off the first three balls.

Gambhir ends Punjab’s unbeaten run

Also read : WATCH | Gambhir takes incredible catch after fumbling the ball thrice