IPL 2014: Kolkata Knight Riders Win Second Title by 3 Wickets, Manish Pandey Hits Record 94 in the Final

Kolkata Knight Riders won their second IPL title on 1 June 2014 at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, defeating Kings XI Punjab by 3 wickets in one of the highest-scoring IPL finals. KXIP posted 199/4; KKR chased it down in 19.3 overs at 200/7. Manish Pandey scored 94 — then the highest individual score in any IPL final — as Player of the Match, his innings turning a difficult chase into a KKR victory. Robin Uthappa (KKR) won the Orange Cap with 660 runs; Mohit Sharma (CSK) took the Purple Cap with 23 wickets.

Manish Pandey: 94 — The Defining Innings in KKR's 199-Run Chase

Manish Pandey's 94 in the IPL 2014 final was one of the highest individual innings in any IPL final — second only to Murali Vijay's 95 in the 2011 final — and the innings that turned a near-impossible 199-run chase into a KKR championship. Pandey, Karnataka's right-handed middle-order batter who had developed through Indian domestic cricket's T20 circuits, produced his defining IPL performance under maximum pressure: a 199-run target in a final, at a neutral ground, with the championship on the line. His 94 combined power hitting with the ability to absorb dot balls and accelerate at the right moments — the skills that T20 chasing innings require at the highest level. He was unable to reach the century that would have been even more historic, but his 94 was decisive: without it, KKR could not have won.

Robin Uthappa: Orange Cap and the Season of His Life

Robin Uthappa (KKR) won the 2014 IPL Orange Cap with 660 runs — one of the most prolific individual batting seasons KKR has ever seen from a single player. Uthappa, Karnataka's right-handed wicketkeeper-batter who had been part of India's 2007 T20 World Cup-winning squad, produced his best-ever IPL campaign for KKR — consistency at the top of the order, high strike rates, and the ability to make the most of powerplay conditions in a way that gave KKR's chase-based approach a reliable platform. His 660 runs across the full competition confirmed KKR as a team where individual batting excellence and collective title-winning were happening simultaneously.

IPL 2014 in Context

The 2014 IPL is remembered for its high-scoring final — a 199-run target that required Pandey's exceptional innings to achieve — and for the competition's expansion context: the 2014 season included the first matches played in the UAE (following the Indian general election schedule requiring IPL to temporarily relocate), returning to India for the later rounds. The Chinnaswamy final in Bengaluru, on a ground known for its high scores and pace-friendly conditions, produced the expected high-scoring contest, with both teams' batting lineups contributing to one of the most entertaining IPL finals of the competition's first decade.