Manoj Tiwary exploded after a slow start to boost Kolkata to a match-winning total. The turnaround was stunning considering that he struggled at the start and was in fact guilty of letting the run-rate slip. There were 27 dot balls in the first ten overs, nearly five full overs of stagnation, with Tiwary the main culprit as he was unable to rotate the strike, but everything changed after the first time-out.

All of a sudden, Tiwary started finding his touch and two shots in particular showcased his skill. The first was against a near yorker-length delivery well outside off, he reached out to crash it to cover boundary. The second was even better. Ravi Bopara's yorker was heading towards off and middle, when Tiwary crouched to play a delicate late-cut to the third-man boundary. In between, he swung over midwicket, and backed away from the stumps to drive through off. Ganguly lashed out at Piyush Chawla, lofting and flaying him for boundaries and runs started to come in a flood.

However, they again lost momentum after the fall of Ganguly - hitting Chawla to long-off. From 124 for 2 in 14 overs, they slowed down to 162 for 4 in 19. Tiwary then took Pathan apart in the final over, smashing 21 runs with four boundaries - a pulled six after which he backed away to find the wide long-off boundary repeatedly. The brutal finish seemed to have sucked out the spirit from Punjab, who dawdled their way in the chase.