IPL 2017 Match 4 report: Maxwell, Miller steer Kings XI Punjab to a comfortable win

In a nutshell

An all-round performance by the Kings XI Punjab ensured that they won comfortably in their tournament opener against Rising Pune Supergiant. The Punjab bowlers did a good job in restricting Pune to a total of 163 runs, and their captain Glenn Maxwell ensured that they achieved that target with an over to spare.

Match scorecard

How it unfolded

Glenn Maxwell won the toss and elected to field first. Sandeep Sharma vindicated his captain’s decision by bowling out Mayank Agarwal in the first over itself. Rahane and Captain Steve Smith batted cautiously through the power plays, scoring only 20 runs during that period. Punjab bowlers kept the pressure on the Pune’s batsmen, and ensured that they never got in a position to build a healthy partnership. Newcomer Natarajan took out Rahane in his first over, and Smith departed soon thereafter. Pune would have expected much from their ex-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but he too could contribute only seven runs before being caught by Swapnil Singh off his own bowling. By this time, more than half the first innings was already over, Pune had only 71 runs on board and had lost 4 wickets. Stokes and Tiwary added 61 runs for the fifth innings, the biggest of the first innings. A few hard hits by Tiwary and Christian near the end of the first innings ensured that Pune reached a respectable total of 163 runs.

The Kings started out at at a good scoring rate against Pune’s bowling. However, Manan Vohra top-edged to deep square leg off Dinda in the 3rd over and Saha was bowled by Imran Tahir in the sixth over. At this point, Maxwell gambled by sending Axar Patel in instead of coming down himself or sending David Miller to bat. Smith rotated his bowlers well for a few overs that put a brake on Punjab’s scoring rate. Between overs six to ten, no boundaries were hit. The pressure built by Pune bowlers paid off, as both Amla and Patel got out in quick succession. That brought the duo of Maxwell and Miller on the crease. Maxwell played a captain’s knock, scoring at more than two runs a ball. Miller played a more subdued innings, but supported Maxwell ably to ensure that Punjab chased down the target easily in the 19th over.

Where the game was won

The Punjab bowlers did an excellent job in reigning in the top-order of Pune’s batting line-up, which had played well against Mumbai Indians in their previous line-up. They made sure that the run-rate remained under control, and took wickets at regular wickets. They did leak some runs in the death overs, but otherwise none of their bowlers went for more than 10 runs an over.

Glenn Maxwell once again showed why he is considered to be one of the most fearsome lower-order batsman. He pretty much dominated the second-half of the second innings, and won the game for Kings XI Punjab.

What this means for the tournament

Winning the opening match always provides a good momentum for a team, and Kings XI Punjab have that for now. Rising Pune Supergiant were also in a similar state when they defeat Mumbai in their first match a couple of days back, so Punjab will have to make sure that they do not lose out on this momentum like Pune did. Punjab and Pune are third and fourth respectively in the points table right now, but it is till very early in the tournament to be indicative of how the future standing will look like.

Takeaways

The dominant all-round performance of Kings XI Punjab revived the memories of their memorable run the 2014 edition of IPL, when they reached the finals of the tournament. The core of that team are still a part of Kings XI Punjab: Maxwell, Miller, Axar Patel, Manan Vohra and Wriddhiman Saha all played for that team. Although they were very inconsistent in the past two seasons, Punjab’s fans will hope that their team can reprise their 2014 run in this season as well.

For Pune, they will rue not putting up a bigger score in their first innings. Their strength lies in batting, and they were not able to leverage this strength against Punjab. Should they continue opening with Mayank Agarwal, who hasn’t been up to task in his first two matches? Should they continue playing Dinda, who has been perennially inconsistent in IPL and expensive in the first two matches? They will look to answer these questions before their next match against Delhi Daredevils on April 11.