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Although the Knight Riders pegged the Kings back in the middle overs, a devastating 33 off 14 balls from David Wiese ensured the Knight Riders were set a very difficult 148 to win.
The Knight Riders’ task became even more difficult when they lost three early wickets inside the Powerplay including that of Nicholas Pooran for a duck.
They never really recovered from that and left themselves too much ground to make up in the back end, resulting in the narrow defeat.
The Kings had got off to flier in the Powerplay with the tournament’s top scorer Charles hitting another barnstorming fifty. His partnership with Niroshan Dickwella added 59 runs before Ravi Rampaul carried on his good form by removing the latter.
When Rampaul removed the set Charles it led to a squeeze on the Kings’ scorecard as 82-3 quickly became 117-5.
However, Wiese was able to produce an excellent counter attacking innings at the death to help the Kings post a challenging 147.
The Knight Riders response saw their top order fail again as Leonardo Julien, Colin Munro and Pooran all fell inside the Powerplay to Roston Chase.
That left the middle and lower order too much to do and despite a late salvo by Andre Russell (sixes off the final two deliveries with 14 needed for victory), it was too little too late.
The two sides swapped places in the table following the results and both will now head to Guyana with all to play for in the race for the playoffs. (CPL)
