Mohali: Senior batsman Virender Sehwag was full of praise for his young opening partner Manan Vohra, whose 32-ball-65 set the tone for an emphatic victory.

Sehwag said that he wanted to present Manan with one of his bats had he scored a century. “I offered to give Manan my bat if he could score a hundred. Unfortunately he couldn’t,” said a smiling Sehwag, who did not have too many charitable things to say about the Mohali pitch.

“It wasn’t a pretty good wicket for T20. It was stopping and gripping and turning and as a batsman you will stop and think whether you want to go for your shots. But credit to our batting side. They were chasing 216, they had to go after the bowling, but we had two good spinners,” said Sehwag.

Vohra, on his part said, “It was a good day for me, I was hitting the ball well and I thought I could carry on.”

What was his reaction when Sehwag told him that he would present him with one of his bats, Vohra said, “I told him I was waiting for it, but I miscued a short ball. More patience, more consolidation, more singles which I’m not doing right now.”

KXIP skipper George Bailey said, “I was keen to bat for the reasons we say. The other night against Tridents in our second innings, the ball just started to turn and there wasn’t as much dew.”

“It could make some doubts in the batting order and we thought we could ride that through. Manan’s innings was outstanding. Viru as well. Really pleased with the bowling.

“Especially with Karanveer, who didn’t get as much time in the early overs. And the fielding was good too. It was a little electric out there,” the skipper said.

They put up yet another dominating performance as they outclassed Northern Knights from New Zealand by a whopping 120 runs to enter the semi-finals in their maiden appearance in the CL-T20.

Put into bat, Kings XI Punjab put up a massive 215 for five, courtesy blazing half-centuries from openers Manan Vohra (65 off 32 balls) and veteran Virender Sehwag (52 off 37 balls) and century opening stand between them.

In reply, Northern Knights started off well in Powerplay overs before their chase ran out of steam to be skittled out for paltry 95 in 15.2 overs.

KXIP with three wins from as many matches now have 12 points to their credit and have clinched a place in the semi-finals with four other teams fighting for the other three spots.

The ‘Pink Panthers’ from New Zealand, who had done well at the start of the tournament, found it difficult to handle the young spin duo of leg-spinner Karanveer Singh (4 for 15 in 3.2 overs) and left-arm spinner Akshar Patel (2 for 16 in 4 overs) during the middle overs.

In the eight overs bowled between them, they snared six wickets with only 31 runs being conceded in 7.2 overs.

Once batting mainstay Kane Williamson (20) was caught Wriddhiman Saha off Thisara Perera and Akshar got Anton Devcich (28) caught by Karanveer, there was no way that Knights would have chased the target.