On the night of 1 June 2014, a wicketkeeper who had never before passed fifty in the IPL walked out at Bengaluru's M. Chinnaswamy Stadium and produced the first century ever scored in an IPL final — and finished on the losing side. That single sentence contains almost everything that makes the 2014 decider between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders one of the most extraordinary title matches the tournament has staged.
Wriddhiman Saha's unbeaten 115 was a landmark. It should have been the story of the night, the innings that won a maiden crown for the most dominant team of the 2014 season. Instead it became the setup for a chase that redrew what was thought possible on a final's suffocating stage. Kolkata were asked to hunt down 200 — the kind of total that ends finals before they breathe — and they did it with balls to spare, dragged over the line by a 24-year-old named Manish Pandey playing the innings of his life. This is the reconstruction of a match that proved, more than a decade ago, that no total in this format is ever truly safe.
The Season That Built Two Very Different Finalists
To understand why the 2014 final felt like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, you have to understand the campaigns that produced it. These were not two teams stumbling into a decider. They were the two best sides of the season arriving by wildly different routes.
Kings XI Punjab: the runaway leaders
Kings XI Punjab had never reached an IPL final in the six seasons before 2014. In 2014 they were transformed. Under George Bailey's captaincy and powered by an Australian import in career-best form, Punjab topped the league table by a distance, winning eleven of their fourteen league games. Glenn Maxwell announced himself to the cricket world that season with a run of destructive hitting that made him the most feared batter in the tournament. David Miller, Virender Sehwag, Manan Vohra and the young left-arm spinner Axar Patel — then spelled Akshar — gave Punjab a balance and depth no rival could match. They entered the final as clear favourites, the team everyone expected to be crowned.
Kolkata Knight Riders: the surge
Kolkata's path was the opposite. After a shaky start that left their playoff hopes in real doubt, Gautam Gambhir's side caught fire at exactly the right moment. They reeled off nine consecutive victories to close the season — one of the great late-campaign surges in IPL history — riding the mystery spin of Sunil Narine, the relentless run-scoring of Robin Uthappa, and a bowling unit that squeezed opponents dry. Kolkata had already won the title in 2012, so they knew what a final demanded. They arrived not as favourites but as a team peaking harder than anyone else in the field.
The league meeting between the two had gone Punjab's way. The final, both dressing rooms knew, would be settled on the night.
Saha's Masterpiece — The First Hundred in a Final
Batting first, Kings XI Punjab lost Sehwag early and, for a few overs, looked as though nerves might strangle the innings. Then Wriddhiman Saha decided otherwise.
What followed was one of the purest displays of clean striking the IPL had seen. Saha, promoted up the order and given license to attack, carved and clubbed his way to a hundred off just over fifty balls, blending orthodox timing with audacious range-hitting. Manan Vohra gave him excellent support with a brisk 67 at the other end, and the pair's partnership took the game away from Kolkata's bowlers in a blur of boundaries. Saha finished unbeaten on 115 — the first century ever recorded in an IPL final, a record that would stand unmatched for years.
Kings XI Punjab closed on 199 for 4. In the history of IPL finals up to that point, a total near 200 had never been chased down. The trophy, by every historical measure, was as good as engraved. Punjab's players left the field believing the hardest part was done.
Why Chinnaswamy mattered
The venue itself was a silent character in the drama. The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru is one of the most batter-friendly grounds in world cricket — short square boundaries, a true, hard surface, and an altitude that carries the ball. On that pitch, 199 was a colossal score but not an unassailable one, precisely because the same conditions that let Saha soar were still available to whoever batted second. It was the kind of ground where a set batsman could clear the ropes at will, and Kolkata had exactly the personnel to exploit it. The scoreboard read like a fortress; the surface whispered that it was anything but.
The Chase That Broke the Rules
Kolkata's reply began with the calm of a team that refused to read the scoreboard as a verdict. Uthappa, the season's leading run-scorer, set an early tempo, and when he fell it was Manish Pandey who took the innings by the scruff of the neck.
Manish Pandey, 94 off 50
Pandey's innings was the counterweight to Saha's — less brutal, more surgical, a masterclass in controlled aggression under the heaviest pressure the format offers. He found the boundary when the required rate demanded it and manufactured strike when it did not, keeping Kolkata's chase always within touching distance of the asking rate. He fell for 94, agonisingly short of a hundred of his own, but by then he had done the essential work: he had made the impossible feel routine.
The final overs
Even with Pandey's platform, the chase went to the wire. Kings XI Punjab's bowlers, sensing the title slipping, fought back through the death overs, and the equation tightened with every delivery. It came down to the lower order to finish what the top order had built. Piyush Chawla, arriving in the closing stages, struck the decisive runs, and Kolkata completed the chase with three balls to spare, winning by three wickets.
Two hundred, hunted down in a final. The Knight Riders had their second title in three years, and Kings XI Punjab were left to absorb a defeat made crueller by the brilliance of the innings that was supposed to win them everything.
Data Deep-Dive: The Numbers Behind the Night
The scale of what both teams achieved is best read through the numbers. The final was defined by two of the greatest individual innings ever played on the biggest night of the IPL calendar — and by a chase that rewrote the ceiling.
| Team | Score | Top scorer | Support act | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kings XI Punjab | 199/4 (20) | Wriddhiman Saha 115* | Manan Vohra 67 | Lost |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 200/7 (19.3) | Manish Pandey 94 | Robin Uthappa & Piyush Chawla | Won by 3 wickets |
Saha's hundred was not an isolated freak — it belongs to the tiny, exclusive club of match-defining innings in IPL finals. Placed alongside the other great final knocks, its stature only grows, because unlike the others it came in a losing cause.
| Batter | Score | Final | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shane Watson | 117* | CSK vs SRH, 2018 | CSK won |
| Wriddhiman Saha | 115* | KXIP vs KKR, 2014 | KKR won |
| Murali Vijay | 95 | CSK vs RCB, 2011 | CSK won |
| Manish Pandey | 94 | KKR vs KXIP, 2014 | KKR won |
Two of the four highest individual scores in IPL final history came from this single match — a statistical fingerprint of just how much run-scoring the night contained. Kolkata's pursuit of 200 remains one of the highest successful run chases ever completed in an IPL final, a benchmark for what a batting side can do when it refuses to be intimidated by a scoreboard.
Legacy Impact — What the 2014 Final Means in IPL 2026
More than a decade on, the fingerprints of that night are all over the modern game, and the story carries directly into the 2026 season.
For Kolkata, 2014 confirmed an identity that endures. The franchise that surged to that title — built on spin, calm captaincy, and a refusal to panic in a chase — is recognisably the ancestor of the KKR side that lifted the trophy again in 2024 and still leans on Sunil Narine, a survivor of that very 2014 dressing room, as a cornerstone in 2026. Chasing culture, the belief that any total is gettable, became part of the club's DNA on that Bengaluru night.
For Kings XI Punjab — now Punjab Kings — the 2014 final is the great "what if." It was their finest season and their closest brush with glory, and the fact that they produced the first hundred in a final and still lost has haunted the franchise's title drought ever since. Entering 2026, they remain one of the teams still chasing a maiden crown, and every heartbreak since traces back to the template of that night: brilliant, dominant, and ultimately just short.
The match also stands as the clearest early proof of a truth that now governs how every contest is analysed. This is precisely the kind of match that CricMind's Oracle engine is built to read — a game where a 200 total, historically a near-certain final-winner, was quietly a coin-flip because of the chasing team's momentum, batting depth and the venue's true surface. Human instinct in 2014 said 199 for 4 was game over; the data underneath said otherwise. The Oracle's live win-probability model exists to catch exactly those moments when the scoreboard and the real odds have drifted apart.
Three Takeaways
- No total is safe in a final. Kolkata's chase of 200 permanently dismantled the idea that a big first-innings score decides a decider. Every high-scoring final since has been played in the shadow of what KKR proved possible.
- Individual brilliance does not guarantee a trophy. Wriddhiman Saha produced the innings of the tournament and finished a runner-up. Finals are won by the team that lasts forty overs, not the batter who wins twenty.
- Momentum outweighs the league table. Kings XI Punjab were the best side across the season; Kolkata were the hottest side at the end of it. On the one night that mattered, form-in-the-moment beat form-over-the-marathon.
FAQ
Who won the 2014 IPL final?
Kolkata Knight Riders won the 2014 IPL final, beating Kings XI Punjab by three wickets at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on 1 June 2014. It was KKR's second IPL title, following their 2012 triumph.
What was Wriddhiman Saha's score in the 2014 final?
Wriddhiman Saha scored an unbeaten 115 for Kings XI Punjab — the first century ever made in an IPL final. Despite his landmark innings, Punjab lost the match, making Saha's hundred the first century scored in a losing cause in an IPL final.
How many runs did KKR chase in the 2014 final?
Kolkata Knight Riders chased down a target of 200, reaching 200 for 7 with three balls to spare. It remains one of the highest successful run chases in the history of IPL finals.
Who was the star of KKR's chase?
Manish Pandey was the standout, scoring 94 off 50 balls. His controlled, aggressive innings kept Kolkata level with a demanding required rate, and Piyush Chawla struck the winning runs in the closing overs.
Why is the 2014 final considered legendary?
Because it broke the assumption that a near-200 total wins a final. It produced the first century in an IPL final, two of the four highest individual scores in final history, and one of the biggest successful chases the occasion has seen — all in a single, unforgettable night.
Have Kings XI Punjab (Punjab Kings) ever won the IPL?
No. As of the 2026 season, the franchise — rebranded from Kings XI Punjab to Punjab Kings — has never won an IPL title. The 2014 final, which they lost despite Saha's century, remains their closest chance to date.
How does the 2014 final connect to the modern KKR?
Kolkata's identity as a team that thrives in chases and leans on world-class spin was crystallised in 2014. Sunil Narine, a key figure in that title win, remains a central player for KKR in 2026, linking the current side directly to the champions of that night.