Virender Sehwag showed glimpses of his usual attacking self during his knock of 72 but Kings XI Punjab had a rare batting collapse as they managed a below-par 149 for eight against Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL match here today.
KKR captain Gautam Gambhir's decision to field was vindicated by his bowlers. While Sehwag's 50-ball-72 was the highlight of the Kings innings, the failure of the middle-order, once Maxwell was dismissed, became apparent.
Gambhir's decision to include Morne Morkel (2/20) and Piyush Chawla (3/19) in the playing XI was justified as they picked five wickets for 49 runs in eight overs between them.
Sehwag has been consistently getting starts and today he got a much deserved half-century. His innings had 11 fours and a six off Jacques Kallis.
It couldn't have been a better start for the Kings XI as the 'Nawab of Najafgarh' started by blasting Kallis for four boundaries in the first over of the match.
A cover drive off the first ball set the tone and it was followed by a clip towards square leg and couple of shots behind the square.
Mandeep Singh (0) tried to slash one off Morkel and gave a simple catch to Robin Uthappa behind stumps.
Wriddhiman Saha (15) joined Sehwag who went about on his boundary spree. He was however dropped on 23 when he pushed hard at a Morkel delivery and the glovesman couldn't pouch on to the delivery.
Saha hit a couple of boundaries off Yadav before Morkel bowled him with an incutter but there was no stopping Sehwag.
There were some streaky edges in between but he did hit some audacious strokes. A straight six off Kallis reminded Sehwag of the old as he completed his 50 off 35 balls.
Glenn Maxwell (14) didn't fire today as he holed out at deep square leg, trying to slog sweep Chawla.
Sehwag was finally out when he tried to hoist a Chawla googly which stayed low and hit the off-stump.
Once Sehwag was gone, it sparked a sudden collapse as the dangerous David Miller (13) saw his middle stump uprooted by Yadav. From 87 for two, it suddenly became 120 for five.
It got worse when Rishi Dhawan tried to sweep across the line and was bowled in the process.
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