Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) | IPL 2018
The Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) is a franchise cricket team based in Mohali, Punjab, that plays in the Indian Premier League. Established in 2008, the franchise is jointly owned by Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, Wadia Group scion Ness Wadia, Dabur’s Mohit Burman and Karan Paul. The team plays its home matches at the PCA Stadium, Mohali. Since the 2010 IPL, they have been playing some of their home games at Dharamsala, Punjab.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2008 Season:
The tournament got off to a slow start for the Kings XI Punjab, with the team losing their first two games. However, 94 runs by Kumar Sangakkara helped them to take game 3. Despite the absence of Brett Lee and Simon Katich, the team found its groove. Powered by their balanced bowling lineup[5] and effective top order,[6] the team won 9 of its next 10 matches, clinching a berth in the semi-final, where their run in the tournament came to an end with a comprehensive 9-wicket loss to the Chennai Super Kings.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2009 Season:
Finishing as semi-finalists in 2008, Kings XI Punjab started with enormous ambitions to win the trophy. Their ambitions were supported by their new sponsors Emirates Airlines. With two available slots to fill the Punjab Kings made bids on Jerome Taylor and Yusuf Abdulla at the second IPL auction.
The team took a hit as most of their Australian cricketers were not available. The team lacked available pace bowlers after Jerome Taylor backed out at the last minute with an injury.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2010 Season:
Kings XI Punjab lost six matches to Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians but managed to win a match against Chennai Super Kings when the scores were level and the match went to a Super Over. Kings XI Punjab were boosted by the return of Brett Lee against Kolkata, but he was not at his best. Shaun Marsh returned in the match against Mumbai Indians. In spite of his good performance, which included a half century, the team lost the match. They ended IPL3 in last position.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2011 Season:
IPL 2011 looked promising when they bought a full strength team with Michael Bevan as coach and Adam Gilchrist appointed as captain.
Kings XI Punjab missed out on the play offs by 2 points (or 1 victory). This meant they finished 5th in the points table.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2012 Season:
Kings XI Punjab finished in sixth place overall, winning eight matches out of sixteen.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2013 Season:
Kings XI Punjab failed to qualify for the play-offs but batsmen David Miller played one of the innings of the tournament in the 51st match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, as he smashed 101* off 38 deliveries and included 8 fours and 7 sixes. Coming in at 51-3 in the 8th over and chasing a target of 190, Miller rectified the game and led Punjab to a six wicket win with 2 overs remaining.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2014 Season:
Australia’s T20I captain George Bailey was leading the squad for the 7th season. Other buys featured the likes of Virender Sehwag, Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Johnson. Kings XI Punjab got the tournament off to a flyer, winning all of their first 5 games. The stand out player was Glenn Maxwell with his unorthodox and powerful hitting, scoring 95, 89 and 95 in his first 3 innings with a strike rate of over 200.There were many inning building innings from the veteran Indian batsman Virender Sehwag and young star Manan Vohra which made middle order batting easy and qualify to the playoffs. Due to a brilliant 122 run knock from Virender Sehwag against Chennai Super Kings in the semifinal, KXIP make their way to the final. In the final, they faced Kolkata Knight Riders where they batted first and set a good target of 199 owing to Wriddhiman Saha’s brilliant 115* (which incidentally was the first ton in an IPL final[11]). However, due to Manish Pandey’s 94 off 50 balls and his teammates consistently high run rate, including Piyush Chawla’s 13 off 5 balls, KKR were able to win the final by 3 wickets in the final over of the match.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2015 Season:
George Bailey continued to lead the side during the 2015 season. Unfortunately, the team could not repeat the heroics of the previous season where they finished 2nd, winning just 3 of the 14 games and finishing 8th in the league. David Miller finished the season as top scorer with 357 runs and Anureet Singh finished the season as the top wicket taker with 15 wickets.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2016 Season:
David Miller and Murali Vijay captained the team in the first and second half of the 2016 season. The team had another terrible run in the league finishing 8th once again with only 4 wins under their belt. Murali Vijay was the top scorer with 453 runs and Sandeep Sharma was the top wicket taker with 15 wickets for the season.
Kings XI Punjab – IPL 2017 Season:
Virender Sehwag joined as head coach as the team looked to recover from two back-to-back last-place finishes in the league. He appointed Glenn Maxwell as the captain. Eoin Morgan, Darren Sammy and Hashim Amla joined the likes of David Miller in the team. The team missed out on a place in the play-offs by a last game defeat to Rising Pune SuperGiant and ended the season in 5th winning 7 out of their 14 games. Hashim Amla finished the season as top scorer with 420 runs including two centuries, and Sandeep Sharma was top wicket taker with 17 wickets.
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