Kolkata Knight Riders romped home to their second IPL title after chasing 200 without much drama. The Unreal Times IPL correspondent Malit Lodi returned from his month long vacation yesterday morning, and after recovering from the shock of seeing Robin Uthappa wear the orange cap, began to cover the game in right earnest. Key moments in pictures:
Sehwag goes early
Viru couldn’t quite reproduce the masterclass from his previous innings that famously got his son’s classroom bullies off his back. It didn’t help that he had to face the 140 kmph+ deliveries of Umesh Yadav and Morne Morkel as against the lollypops lobbed by CSK’s R Ashwin the other day. His early dismissal had immediate repercussions on his family.
After 7 overs, Kings XI Punjab at 36 / 2
The early wickets resulted in one of the slowest starts for KXIP this tournament. Preity looked a little worried. George Bailey, not as much.
Moments later…
Saha continued his big hitting ways, eventually notching up a century, reserving special punishment for mystery spinner Sunil Narine.
SRK to aide after another six: “Cancel Sunil’s Narine special jet. Apne aap ghar jaayega saala” #PepsiIPL
— The UnReal Times (@TheUnRealTimes) June 1, 2014
Without much contribution from Maxwell and Miller, Saha took his team to 200.
The KKR innings began with the dismissal of Robin Uthappa – the only person to listen to SRK’s “sattar minute hain tumhare paas” pep-talk in the innings break. Gambhir however, looked in sublime touch. Cracking a few delightful off drives, the skipper, along with opener Manish Pandey, took his team to a healthy 59/1 after six overs.
Gambhir goes; Yusuf Pathan storms in
Seeking to stamp the authority on young spinner Karanveer Singh, Gambhir jumped out and swung at a slow turner, only to hole out to Miller.
As the forlorn skipper trudged out, Yusuf Pathan thundered in, channeling his inner Bagha (from Lagaan), as the crowd cheered him on lustily.
He took the scene in…
He swung with all his might…
He roared…
And then much like his reel-life counterpart, he quickly departed after a memorable cameo. It was left to Manish Pandey to take his team home, and he did just that.
KKR win with 3 deliveries to spare
With 12 runs to get off 7 deliveries, and the dangerous Mitchell Johnson sprinting in, Piyush Chawla hooked a short delivery for a six bringing the equation to 5 runs from the last over. After that it was just a question of waiting for a full toss, that Parvinder Awana duly delivered outside off stump. Chawla dispatched it over point to a boundary and took off like a squirrel in a random direction. KKR won with 3 balls to spare.
If you were just looking at the two skippers’ expressions, you wouldn’t quite be able to tell though.
Post match reactions
Tough luck for the KXIP boys, for they didn’t get a hug from their owner, Preity Zinta, except for Wriddhiman Saha, who’d demonstrated significant foresight and claimed his hug after the 1st innings.
In summary
The story somehow doesn’t seem complete. Something’s missing. Ha, here is the tweet to perfectly encapsulate the IPL 2014 finals:
So a Bong did it for KXIP & a Punjabi did it for KKR. #SagarikaLikeAnalysis
— Ashwin S Kumar (@ashwinskumar) June 1, 2014
(What was Ravi Shastri’s role in the great Prime Ministerial debate in the run-up to the 2014 General Elections? Find out in our bestseller, Unreal Elections)