KOLKATA, April 15: Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla starred with three crucial wickets for 18 runs as Kings XI Punjab beat Kolkata Knight Riders by two runs in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.Chawla ran through the middle order with three quick wickets to help restrict Kolkata to 132-7 after West Indian off-spinner Sunil Narine’s tidy figures of 5-19 had allowed Kings XI to score 134-9.

Kings XI needed nine off the last over, but medium-fast bowler Harmeet Singh varied his pace intelligently to clean bowl Ryan ten Doeschate.

Debabrata Das, who top-scored for his team with 35, managed a single off the last delivery when a boundary was required.

But it was Chawla’s triple blow midway through Kolkata’s run chase that hurt the home team most. The pinner clean bowled Manvinder Bisla (27) and Yousuf Pathan for a duck in one over before neatly taking a skied ball off Shakib Al Hasan’s (4) mistimed sweep shot with Kolkata slipping to 88-6 by the 15th over after looking comfortable at 73-2 in the 12th over.

Earlier, King XI’s Mandeep Singh made 38 off 34 balls and David Hussey scored 32 after Narine got the top two wickets of Adam Gilchrist (5) and Shaun Marsh (1) in the space of three deliveries.

The off-spinner bagged three more wickets within six balls in his return spell of two overs, but Kings XI managed to score 30 off the last two overs with Bhargav Bhatt hoisting Narine for a six over long on off the last delivery of the innings.

Both teams have four points after winning two matches each.

Jesse Ryder and Steven Smith combined for an unbeaten 117 runs as Pune Warriors scored an impressive seven-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in Pune on Saturday.

New Zealand opener Ryder (73) and Australian all-rounder Smith (44) added 66 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket to help Pune score 156-3 in 19.2 overs after defending champion Chennai had been restricted to 155-5.

Ryder steadied the ship with his 56-ball knock that included one six and seven fours, while Smith hammered three sixes and four fours in his 22-ball innings.

Ryder remained cool despite seeing two of his partners – Robin Uthappa and skipper Saurav Ganguly – being run out.

He kept the team in the hunt with singles, twos and the occasional boundary, setting the stage for Smith who finished the game off with a four and six off the first two deliveries of the final over bowled by pace bowler Yo Mahesh.

Earlier, Chennai were boosted by the in-form Faf du Plessis. The South African scored 18 off the fourth over of the innings bowled by Ashish Nehra, which comprised one six and two fours. Du Plessis was stumped off the bowling of leg-spinner Rahul Sharma but not before he had hit two sixes and five fours off 33 balls.

After steady knocks by captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (26) and Suresh Raina (20), all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja made a well-paced 44 off 26 balls with two sixes and four fours.

This was the third win in four games for Pune, while Chennai have two wins and three losses from five games.

Results: Kings Xi Punjab beat Kolkata Knight Riders by two runs.

KINGS XI PUNJAB 134-9 in 20 overs (Mandeep Singh 38, D.J. Hussey 32; S.P. Narine 5-19, R. Bhatia 2-14); KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS 132-7 in 20 overs (D.B. Das 35 not out, M.S. Bisla 27, G. Gambhir 22, M.K. Tiwary 20; P.P. Chawla 3-18, B.A. Bhatt 2-24) Pune Warriors beat Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets.

PUNE WARRIORS 156-3 in 19.2 overs (J.D. Ryder 73 not out, S.P.D. Smith 44 not out); CHENNAI SUPER KINGS 155-5 (R.A. Jadeja 44, F. du Plessis 43, M.S. Dhoni 26; Rahul Sharma 2-16).—AP