The Kochi Tuskers Kerala would not have expected to lose this match, particular after the kind of start they got. However, the Kings XI Punjab team were a little too determined to prove that this victory against the Mumbai Indians was not merely a one off in their previous match of the IPL 4 season.
The Kochi team enjoyed the start given by Brendon McCullum and the KTK captain, Mahela Jayawardene. With over a hundred runs coming off the first ten overs, the Kochi team were expected to post a formidable score to make the Kings XI Punjab team struggle in the first IPL 4 match at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore.

While there was no other innings of real significance following the thirty-two runs provided by McCullum and the massive fillip provided by Jayawardene for seventy-three runs from fifty-two balls, the Kochi team managed to raise a total of 178 with a cameo knock from Owais Shah. With Bipul Sharma getting a couple of breaks for the Kings XI Punjab, the team did reasonably well to pull the Kochi team back.

But it did not seem like the Kings XI Punjab were going to raise a storm, given that they were struggling at two for thirty-one with both, the KXIP captain, Adam Gilchrist, and Paul Valthaty sent back to the hut by R.P. Singh who would strike again to pick up a rich haul of four wickets.

If the Kings XI Punjab were able to tide over the total posted by Kochi, it was because of Shaun Marsh and Dinesh Karthik who starred in a partnership of 111 runs for the third wicket. Marsh provided forty-two runs in only thirty balls, that included a couple of boundaries to keep the KXIP interested. On the other end though, Karthik was stealing the attention with sixty-nine runs from only thirty-three balls, an innings that the KXIP team will be immensely grateful for because it made a world of difference between winning and losing.

With as many as five sixes and seven fours off his bat, Karthik was the single handed dynamite that gave the Kings XI Punjab the kind of innings that was required when chasing such a huge target successfully to cap a second big victory for the Kings XI Punjab in a row.