Deccan Chargers posted its first ever win over Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, squeaking through with a six-wicket win at the Barabati stadium here on Friday night.
For a while though it seemed as if Irfan Pathan would take Kings XI home with a blistering knock after the top order failed to get the chase going.
Deccan Chargers Go, the song of the Hyderabad team which was heard frequently as the Kings XI Punjab wickets fell regularly chasing 171, suddenly stopped being played as Irfan whipped the Deccan bowlers at will. His blitzkrieg 60 came off 29 balls and included three boundaries and 5 sixes. R.P. Singh suffered the most.
With 15 needed off the last over, Deccan captain Adam Gilchrist gave the ball to medium pacer Jaskaran Singh and the young Sikh had Irfan holing out to Andrew Symonds at deep midwicket.
For Gilchrist the seniors — Andrew Symonds, Chaminda Vaas and Herschelle Gibbs played well. Chargers, put in to bat, had a splendid start with Gilchrist smashing the ball around and sharing a 57-run stand with Gibbs after V.V.S. Laxman went back with an injury.
Symonds was named man of the match.
The scores: Deccan Chargers: A. Gilchrist c Jayawardene b S. Srivastava 33 ( 12b, 2x4, 2x6 ), V.V.S. Laxman (retd hurt) 10 ( 7b, 1x4 ), H. Gibbs b Yuvraj Singh 23 ( 23b, 2x4 ), A. Symonds c Bipul Sharma b Yuvraj 53 ( 38b, 3x6, 3x4 ), Rohit Shrama (run out) 1 ( 2b ), Anirudh Singh c Sangakkara b Bipul Sharma 0 ( 1b ), T. Suman (run out) 26 ( 22b, 2x4, 1x6 ), Chaminda Vaas c Bipul Sharma b Irfan 16 ( 10b, 1x5, 1x4 ), Jaskaran Singh (not out) 3 ( 3b ), R.P. Singh (not out) 4 ( 2b ); Extras (w-1): 1; Total (for seven wkts. in 20 overs): 170.
Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-100, 3-102, 4-112, 5-142, 6-161, 7-163.
Kings XI bowling: Irfan 3-0-16-1, Sreesanth 4-0-51-0, Srivastav 4-0-39-1, Chawla 3-0-24-0, Bipul Sharma 2-0-19-1, Yuvraj 4-0-21-2.
Kings XI Punjab: R. Bopara c Symonds b Rohit 38 ( 32b, 5x4 ), M. Bisla (run out) 0 ( 7b ), K. Sangakkara b Vaas 0 ( 3b ), Yuvraj c Gibbs b Vaas 4 ( 6b, 1x4 ), M. Jayawardena b Symonds 14 ( 9b, 4x3 ), A. Barath c Rohit b P. Ojha 7 ( 10b, 1x4 ), Irfan c Symonds b Jaskaran 60 ( 29b, 3x4, 5x6 ), P. Chawla c P. Ojha b R.P. Singh 9 ( 13b, 1x4 ), Bipul Sharma (not out) 8 ( 6b, 1x4 ), S. Sreesanth (not out) 12 ( 5b, 4x3 ); Extras (lb-10, w-2): 12; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 164.
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-11, 3-22, 4-46, 5-57, 6-68, 7-104, 8-152.
Deccan Chargers bowling: Vaas 4-0-27-2, R.P. Singh 4-0-43-1, Symonds 4-0-22-1, P. Ojha 4-0-31-1, Rohit 3-0-19-1, Jaskaran 1-0-12-1.
Correction
Deccan Chargers squeaked through by six runs, and not six wickets as mentioned in a cricket report “Deccan Chargers beats Kings XI” (“Sport”, March 20, 2010). Gibbs (23) and Symonds (53) shared the half century partnership to take the score to 100 for two after Adam Gilchrist was out and Laxman retired hurt.
