Piyush Chawla - or Parthiv Patel with a beard

          • Nitin SundarMay 28, 2014, 03:01 PM
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              Social media manager Nitin spent his formative years perfecting the art of landing the googly, before blossoming into a book-cricket specialist. More excellence followed in the underarm version of the game before, like the majority of India's misguided youth, he started taking studies seriously. After four forgettable years of electrical engineering, followed by a rigorous MBA and 16 months in the strategy consulting industry, he began to ponder life's more profound issues. Such as the angle made by Brian Lara's bat with the horizontal at the peak of his back-lift. A move to ESPNcricinfo followed and Nitin is now a prolific nurdler in office cricket, with a questionable technique against the short ball.

          The reserve day dawned bright, sunny and dry, setting the stage for what promised to be a full game of T20. Not ideal during exam season.

          Who were the favourites? Bollywood had the answer.

          Stats highlights for the day:

          The IPL came a full circle for Gautam Gambhir who fell for 1, pulling Mitchell Johnson to George Bailey at midwicket.

          Robin Uthappa was in ominous touch. He pulled Mitchell Johnson for a memorable six and hooked Parvinder Awana nearly all the way beyond the ropes.

          The India selectors would have taken note, ahead of their selection meeting later in the day.

          Inevitably, he ran up his tenth consecutive score of 40.

          Akshar Patel removed Uthappa and Manish Pandey in one over. Enter, Yusuf Pathan.

          Johnson welcomed Yusuf with some chin music, but that didn't quite work out.

          KKR progressed edgily as Yusuf survived a couple of close LBW calls.

          Shakib Al Hasan fell to spinner Karanveer Singh, and Yusuf threw his wicket away the very next ball.

          Punjab were on top as the rain began to come down. But KKR hit back on resumption, with Suryakumar Yadav and Ryan ten Doeschate getting the commentary box excited with their big hitting.

          Wickets tumbling in the end overs. The slog is on. Who do you call? Baby face.

          Chawla threw his bat around efficiently to haul KKR to 163. Shah Rukh Khan made an appearance at the Eden Gardens, which may have upset the odds a bit.

          The rain made an appearance as Punjab's chase got underway. Virender Sehwag got out early, before D/L calculators were fished out. Wridhiman Saha and Manan Vohra went after the spinners to stay ahead of the par score. Vohra perished at a crucial moment in the sixth over.

          Glenn Maxwell perished cheaply again, this time to Umesh Yadav.

          KKR kept picking up wickets. Piyush Chawla bowled David Miller with a big legbreak to spark wild celebrations on the field.

          Punjab didn't stand a chance in the end game against KKR's efficient death bowlers, and they gradually subsided towards defeat.

          A couple of sixes in the 18th over from Shakib sparked some excitement.

          Not a chance. Not against Sunil Narine. Kolkata go into the final. Punjab will have another chance to get there.

          Whodathunk.