Kings XI Punjab kept themselves in contention for the fourth and final
playoff spot with a win over Delhi Daredevils, who suffered their 12th
defeat of the season. Daredevils played five fast bowlers and chose to
bowl on a greenish pitch in the Dharamsala mountain air. That was all
that went in their favour. Kings XI took advantage of Daredevils' wide
lines to blaze away at the start, and despite slowing down during the
middle, pulled away again at the death to post 171. It looked to be a
par score for the small ground and true pitch but Kings XI's swing
bowlers dealt too many blows at the start of the chase. Some late
hitting got Daredevils close, but they had lost too much ground with all
the early wickets.
Adam Gilchrist showed more signs of finding some touch with 42 off 26 in
a 60-run opening stand with Shaun Marsh that came in 7.3 overs.
Daredevils opened with Irfan Pathan and Siddarth Kaul ahead of the
quicker Umesh Yadav and Morne Morkel. While the pair managed swing,
Irfan ended too far outside off, as did Ashish Nehra later, and Kaul
provided width either side for Gilchrist to indulge in several clean
hits over the infield.
Morkel created a chance in his first over, the third of the innings, but
Yadav at third man put down a slash from Gilchrist, then on 8.
Realising that the pitch alone would not do it for them, Daredevils
started varying their pace and tightened their lines. Irfan caught a
Gilchrist skier off his own bowling, and the innings lost bite.
Marsh began to struggle to get the slower ones away, and Azhar Mahmood
could not get going as well. Umesh Yadav proved difficult to target
initially with his pace and full lengths. The first 7.3 overs had
produced 60, the next 7.3 generated 43. It was two edged fours from
Marsh off Yadav that began the final push in the 16th.
David Miller had arrived in the 12th at Mahmood's exit, and had sized up
the bounce and pace of the pitch by now. He started swinging sixes
between deep midwicket and long-off. R Sathish chipped in with 22 off 13
and Miller ended on 44 off 24 as 62 came from overs 16 to 19. Nehra
recovered to bowl a tight final over, but the damage had been done.
Kings XI had one quick bowler less, but Praveen Kumar and Sandeep Sharma
had lots of swing, and lots of control. Praveen handed Unmukt Chand
another failure with a big inswinger. Sandeep had Irfan chasing a wide
outswinger, and ripped one away from David Warner next ball to have him
edge tamely to first slip.
At 12 for 3, Daredevils looked to Virender Sehwag and Mahela
Jayawardene. Sehwag struck a few but edged behind in trying to force a
good length ball off the back foot. Jayawardene's was a lucky and
largely laborious innings. He was put down a couple of times and plodded
to 16 off 30 before getting a few off the middle.
Ben Rohrer threatened to do the improbable with 49 off 29 as he went
after Mahmood in the penultimate over. Piyush Chawla still had 21 to
defend off the final over. He bowled Rohrer first ball with the quick
seamer he's developed, and despite a couple of sixes from Morkel, that
was it for Daredevils.
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