Kings beat Knights, stay alive

Mohali, Kings XI Punjab pulled off a narrow win to stay alive in the race for the playoffs with a 14-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL encounter here tonight. The Punjab team still has an onerous task at hand; but, at least they have hope of changing their fortune this season.
Kolkata were racing away to victory with openers Chris Lynn (84) and Sunil Narine (18) giving an explosive start to the team. But soon the wheels came off after the fall of Narine off Mohit Sharma in the fourth over. Lynn, at the other end, kept hitting boundaries and sixes with nonchalance but the other batsmen just could not keep up the pace with him.
Lynn and Narine scored 102 runs in 62 balls but the rest of the batsmen could not score the remaining 62 runs. The next four could manage only 47 runs in all.
Once the 27-year-old Queenslander was run-out in the 18th over, Kolkata could manage 153/6.
Man of the Match Mohit Sharma (2/24) and Rahul Tewatia (2/18), both from Haryana, turned the match in Punjab’s favour. While Mohit scalped Narine and Yousuf Pathan (2), 23-year-old leg-spinner Tewatia bowled a tight spell in the middle overs to create panic in the Gautam Gambhir-led side.
Put in to bat, the Punjab team posted 167/6 against a formidable bowling attack, thanks to some flamboyant batting by Glenn Maxwell (44) and a supporting role played by Wriddhiman Saha (38). The 71-run partnership for the fourth wicket helped the home team accelerate towards the end, scoring 104 runs off their last 10 overs.
Chris Woakes (2/20) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/34) took two wickets each.
Skipper Maxwell said, “I suppose the spinners came into the game. Rahul Tewatia bowled really well. As soon as that first ball spun, we realised we could get in a lot of overs from the spinners. We were able to get a couple of wickets in the middle, and kept them quiet till the end. We probably left ourselves 10-15 runs short, but the way we scrapped on the field and the way we bowled, it was outstanding. Still hanging in there by the skin of our teeth, but we’re giving our fans something to cheer for.”