Kings XI Punjab have opened their Indian Premier League account for 2014 with a thrilling six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings on Friday afternoon.
Chennai won the toss and elected to bat, and got off to a fantastic start. Opening batsmen Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum both moved into the 60s before the latter was finally dismissed in the 13th over on 67 off 45.
His partner followed soon after, before Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni and then Dwayne Bravo guided the team past 200 to a very respectable 205-4 off their 20 overs.
Kings XI's response did not go too well in the opening five overs as, despite going beyond 50 runs in total, they lost Cheteshwar Pujara (13), Virender Sehwag (19) and Akshar Patel (2) all early on.
However, a match-winning innings of 95 off just 43 balls from Glenn Maxwell put his side right back into contention and the win was completed with another fine knock by David Miller (54) as Kings XI reached their target in the 19th over.
