MOHALI, April 28: Kings XI Punjab left it till the last over, but there were really no alarms as they beat Delhi Daredevils comfortably by four wickets to register their second straight win in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.
Chasing Daredevil’s 158-8, Kings XI Punjab scored 162-6 with three balls to spare. The star of the show was Australian Simon Katich, who, playing his second match of the tournament, made a well crafted 75. Skipper Yuvraj Singh remained unbeaten on 40.
Having won their earlier encounters in the IPL rather comfortably, Delhi Daredevils finally seemed to have found out in their match against Kings XI Punjab.
A sustained bowling effort, led by fast bowler V.R.V. Singh restricted Delhi Daredevils to 158-8.
Skipper Virender Sehwag was visibly mindful of the fact that other than himself, Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan, none of the Daredevils batsmen have got a hit in the middle, and he chose to have a bat first.
Up against a destructive bowling attack in the Kings XI outfit, a steaming Brett Lee, possibly playing his last game in the competition, and Irfan Pathan dented Delhi right up front by removing both the dangerous Sehwag (6) and Dhawan (0), albeit the latter seemed to have got hard done by an umpiring error.
Opener Gautam Gambhir, Shoaib Malik and Dinesh Karthik all got starts but failed to capitalise as the Kings XI bowlers caught the visitors unawares at 88-5, before Manoj Tiwary added some bulk to the total with 39, assisted by cameos from Rajat Bhatia and Farveez Maharoof.
Kings XI, who beat Mumbai Indians for their first win in the competition, made two changes in their side, brought in Katich and Tanmay Srivastava, the Indian Under-19 player, to replace Ramnaresh Sarwan and Sunny Sohal. Daredevils went unchanged into the match.
Summarised scores:
DELHI DAREDEVILS 158-8 in 20 overs (Manoj Tiwary 39, Dinesh Karthik 24; V.R.V. Singh 3-29, Irfan Pathan 2-26); KINGS XI PUNJAB 162-6 in 19.3 overs (Simon Katich 75, Yuvraj Singh 40 not out; Mohammad Asif 2-39).—Agencies
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