Punjab push aside Delhi for effortless win

Delhi put up a mediocre 120 for seven on the board and Punjab chased it down in 17 overs with five wickets in hand. Harmeet Singh Bansal (3/24) was the pick of the Punjab bowlers while David Miller (34 not out), David Hussey (20) and Mandeep Singh (24) contributed with the bat.

The win was Punjab's fourth one in seven games while Delhi, who beat Mumbai Indians Sunday for their first win the competition, lie at the bottom of the table.

Despite losing Adam Gilchrist early, Punjab were off to flying start with Luke Pomersbach and Mandeep Singh taking their team to 50 in 4.3 overs.

Delhi made a comeback in the next three balls. Pomersbach (18), playing his first game of IPL-6, tried to hit Roelof van der Merwe out of the park only to see his stumps dislodged. That was followed by a mix-up between Mandeep and David Miller, resulting in the former getting run out for 24.

Punjab looked in no trouble in getting past the ordinary target even after being 77 for four halfway through the innings, and needing 44 off 60 balls.

The overseas pairing of David Miller and David Hussey ensured Punjab get over the line safely. While the South African remained unbeaten, Hussey fell when the team needed 11 to win.

Earlier, Delhi suffered a setback in the very first over when their captain Mahela Jayawardene edged a full length ball from Praveen Kumar.

Speedster Parvinder Awana got rid of stop-gap number three van der Merwe to make it 22 for two. It was a rare wicket maiden over in the competition.

Virender Sehwag was at the crease without much action. He got into the act by hitting medium pacer Harmeet for a straight four and six that went over mid-wicket.

The form Sehwag showed during his blistering 95 against Mumbai Indians Sunday was very much there until Harmeet got the revenge in his second over. An expansive drive by the explosive opener went to Manpreet at the cover and after a brief discussion, the two umpires adjudged that the Punjab player had taken a clean catch. Sehwag was out for 23, leaving Delhi in trouble at 45 for three in seven overs.

David Warner was in the middle but regular fall of wickets dried up the runs.

The Australian was back to his aggressive best against Piyush Chawla, picking him for a slog sweep over deep mid-wicket and followed it up with a pull fetching him four runs. The 16-run over provided much needed impetus to the innings.

Delhi, however, could never be in a position of posing a decent total as Warner ran out of partners.

The southpaw was eventually done in by an accurate yorker from Kumar, ending hopes of a 140-plus score. Warner's 40 runs came off 36 balls.

SCOREBOARD

Delhi Daredevils

Mahela Jayawardene c Hussey b Kumar 4
Virender Sehwag c Mandeep Singh b Harmeet Singh 23
Roelof van der Merwe c Mandeep Singh b Awana 8
David Warner Ab Kumar 40
Manpreet Juneja c Awana b Harmeet Singh 4
Kedar Jadhav c Mandeep Singh b Harmeet Singh 0
Johan Botha c Miller b Bhatt 1
Irfan Pathan not out 14
Ajit Agarkar not out 9

Extras (lb 4, w 3) 7
Total (for seven wickets in 20 overs) 120

Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Jayawardene, 0.4 overs), 2-22 (van der Merwe, 3.2), 3-45 (Sehwag, 6.6), 4-84 (Juneja, 13.3), 5-85 (Jadhav, 13.5), 6-89 (Botha, 14.4), 7-103 (Warner, 17.2)

Bowling:

Praveen Kumar 4-0-29-2
Parwinder Awana 4-1-21-1
Harmeet Singh 4-0-24-3
David Hussey 4-0-14-0
Piyush Chawla 2-0-17-0
Bhargav Bhatt 2-0-11-1

Kings XI Punjab

Adam Gilchrist c Botha b Pathan 6
Mandeep Singh run out (Warner) 24
Luke Pomersbach b van der Merwe 18
David Miller not out 34
Manan Vohra c & b Botha 8
David Hussey c Botha b Nehra 20
Piyush Chawla not out 5

Extras (b 4, w 2) 6

Total (for five wickets in 17 overs) 121

Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Gilchrist, 0.3 overs), 2-50 (Pomersbach, 4.4), 3-50 (Mandeep Singh, 4.5), 4-70 (Vohra, 9.2), 5-110 (Hussey, 15.5)

Bowling:

Irfan Pathan 2-0-26-1
Ashish Nehra 3-0-28-1
Johan Botha 4-0-23-1
Roelof van der Merwe 4-1-17-1
Umesh Yadav 3-0-19-0
Ajit Agarkar 1-0-4-0

Toss: Kings XI Punjab, who chose to field
Result: Kings XI won by five wickets
Umpires: VA Kulkarni and K Srinath
TV umpire: M Erasmus (South Africa)
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka)