It was a splendid night, when the 7th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 tournament came to end at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The Kolkata Knight Riders kept their collective calm in a high-scoring final for the second time in three years to become one of the most successful teams of the IPL.
Manish Pandey’s 94 off 50 balls assisted the side pull off a chase of 200 and even though Kings XI Punjab coming back with several late strikes, Kolkata slipped home in the thriller with three balls and three wickets to spare.
With their ninth win in a row of the edition, Kolkata hinged the Chennai Super Kings, whom they had crushed in the final two years ago, as the only side to have claimed multiple IPL trophies.
For Punjab, who lost the toss and were asked to bat, the combine of Glenn Maxwell, David Miller, George Bailey and Virender Sehwag, whom reputation and recent history have marked out as match winners, could only manage nine runs between the four of them. Instead, it was Wriddhiman Saha who came up with the most destructive innings in an IPL final so far. The wicketkeeper batsman cracked his way to a 55-ball unbeaten 115 and was helpful in Punjab reaching 199/4 batting first.
If his rigid hitting was just credible, so was the fact that such a knock could truly end up in a losing cause. It was equally uncanny that Punjab’s Akshar Patel (four overs for 21 runs), the only bowler to have gone at less than six runs an over in a game where 400 runs were scored in less than 40 overs, also did not end the day with his hands around the trophy.
Manish Pandey (KKR) was the Man of the Match. Robin Uthappa (KKR) wins the Orange Cup. Mohit Sharma (CSK) wins the Purple Cap. Glenn Maxwell (KXIP) wins the Most Valuable Player of the IPL 7.Akshar Patel (KXIP) wins the Emerging Player of the Tournament. Chennai Super Kings win the Fair Play Award.
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