Punjab surge to fourth successive win

Kings XI Punjab v/s Kolkata Knight Riders Toss Kings XI Punjab, who chose to bat first Result Kings XI Punjab won by 9 runs Player of the match IK Pathan (Kings XI Punjab) Incisive new-ball spells in helpful conditions by Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth ensured several trends continued - Kings XI Punjab maintained their momentum with a fourth successive win while the Kolkata Knight Riders slumped to their fourth straight defeat. Both innings were characterised by late bursts. Punjab hit 21 off their final over which put the match just beyond the reach of Kolkata, who scored 75 off overs 15 to 19, but still fell nine short after a sluggish start. After Sreesanth removed Sourav Ganguly, slashing to Pathan at third man, Pathan struck twice in one over to leave Kolkata reeling. Pathan has always been a dangerous bowler when he gets the ball swinging back into the right-hand batsman and Mohammad Hafeez and Brad Hodge fell in the space of five balls. Sreesanth added Debradata Das to make it 29 for 4 after five overs, the most wickets to fall in that space of time in the tournament, and when VRV Singh bowled Laxmi Ratan Shukla at 50 for 5, Kolkata seemed to be heading for a massive defeat. David Hussey and young Wriddhiman Saha, however, had other ideas. The pair started slowly, playing out a couple of overs before Hussey took Gagandeep Singh, who had bowled two very tidy overs, for 17 runs, including a massive six over long-on. There was another quiet over before the pair really turned it on. The big hits were complemented by agile running between the wickets and they brought the equation down to 55 off 18 deliveries. James Hopes, back after missing three games, served up several full tosses which were promptly deposited into the crowd and when Gagandeep was taken for 18 in the penultimate over, the equation had come down to 19 off the last six balls, after Hussey was dismissed for a 46-ball 71. Pathan kept his nerve and sent down a mix of yorkers and low full tosses and despite some big swings only four runs came off the first three balls. There was no fairytale ending for Kolkata. After Punjab chose to bat, several of their batsmen failed to capitalise on their starts - three of their top five got into double digits but didn't make it to 20. Hopes, coming in for Ramnaresh Sarwan, carved a few powerful boundaries square on the offside before top-edging Ashok Dinda to mid-on. Yuvraj Singh looked imperious, as in the previous game, plundering 14 off an Hafeez over before over-balancing to be stumped and Mahela Jayawardene lofted a huge six over midwicket before miscuing a bouncer from Umar Gul to mid-on. Shaun Marsh, fresh from his match-winning IPL debut against Deccan Chargers, kept his composure at the other end to make a pleasing 40. There were some crisp drives in his knock, with one through the covers off Dinda early on standing out. He was stumped, missing a flighted delivery from Hussey, as Kolkata started to gain the upper hand. When Karan Goel was run out a couple of overs later, Punjab had slid to 106 for 5 from 82 to 1. Kumar Sangakkara, who retired on 10 with a side strain, returned to lead the fightback with Pathan. He again demonstrated the importance of timing and placement in Twenty20 before departing for 28, bowled by Gul, who at US$150,000 is providing competition to Shane Watson for being the bargain buy of the IPL. Pathan remained unbeaten on 24, but the acceleration at the end was provided by Piyush Chawla, who hit three fours and a six off Ishant Sharma's final over. It has been a stunning resurgence from Punjab, who after being bottom of the table after two games are now tied for top spot. Kolkata, though, have gone in the opposite direction, dropping from table-toppers to four points behind the teams in the semi-final places.

Marsh powers Punjab to easy win

Deccan Chargers v/s Kings XI Punjab Toss Kings XI Punjab, who chose to field first Result Kings XI Punjab won by 7 wickets (with 7 balls remaining) Player of the match SE Marsh (Kings XI Punjab) There were plenty of star batsmen on show but the two best innings of an absorbing encounter came from two youngsters. Shaun Marsh's unbeaten 84 on his IPL debut, carrying Kings XI Punjab to a comfortable seven-wicket win - their third on the trot - and fourth place in the points table, followed Rohit Sharma's 76, which lifted the Deccan Chargers to a respectable 164. Each side also saw cameos from more experienced hands; VVS Laxman provided the early aggression for Deccan with a typically fluid 48 off 34 balls, while Mahela Jayawardene shrugged off his indifferent form to date with an assured unbeaten 45 to shepherd Marsh - the son of the former Australian opener Geoff Marsh - as they ran down the target with ease. Sent in to bat, Deccan raced to 50 for 1 after six overs on the back of Laxman's efforts, and seemed on course for a huge total. However, the game's complexion changed when legspinner Piyush Chawla intelligently varied his trajectory and pace in a two-over spell to remove Herschelle Gibbs and Laxman. Gibbs, on his IPL debut, fell as he clubbed a short one straight to midwicket while Laxman was too early into a drive to lob one to Yuvraj at covers to leave Deccan at 67 for 3 after nine overs. Enter Rohit, who had burst into the limelight with a fighting fifty against South Africa in the ICC World Twenty20 last year. As wickets fell around him and only Shahid Afridi touching double figures, Rohit took the fight to the bowlers. He started slowly, as the Punjab's bowlers keeping things tight. It wasn't till the 15th over that he opened out, taking Chawla for 12 runs, including a four and a big six, to spoil the legspinner's figures. The next over was from Gagandeep Singh, playing his first IPL match; he fired in a couple of great yorkers but Rohit hit him for two powerful boundaries off the last two balls. His fifty came with a heave over midwicket off VRV Singh and the runs continued to flow as he took Gagandeep for three consecutive fours in the 19th. A six off Irfan in the final over rounded off his exploits, having scored his last 57 runs off 22 balls. For all that, though, it was still a below-par total that Punjab had to chase down and Marsh got them off to a confident start with a couple of sweetly-timed boundaries in the first over. Laxman shuffled the bowlers around and managed to stifle the runs but it needed a stroke of luck for the breakthrough.With the score on 41 in the sixth over, Marsh lashed a Sanjay Bangar delivery straight back and the bowler managed to get a hand on it as it crashed into the stumps with non-striker Ramnaresh Sarwan out of his crease. Sangakkara fell soon after but Marsh and Yuvraj were involved in a 41-run stand off four overs to keep the target well in sight. Marsh remained unruffled even after Yuvraj's dismissal and was joined by the cool-headed Jayawardene, who smashed three boundaries off his first five balls. The only time they looked in trouble was when Bangar sent down a tight 14th over and the required run-rate crept over nine. The response from Punjab was swift - Jayawardene played a couple of scoops and an extra-cover drive as 19 runs came off the next over. Besides scoring heavily square of the wicket on the off side Marsh - who was a replacement for Simon Katich, Punjab's matchwinner in their previous game - also unleashed some lovely on-drives. There were a few streaky shots towards the end before he clubbed Zoysa for a straight six, his first of the match. Jayawardene brought up the victory with another classy extra-cover drive, as Punjab continued their resurgence after losing their first two games.

Why was Sreesanth crying?

Breaking News! India’s ace spinner Harbhajan Singh, who has been in the news for all wrong reasons, yet again did it. Harbhajan allegedly slapped Sreesanth after the IPL match between Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians at Mohali. Sreesanth was seen crying after the match. He was consoled by the teammates. Kings XI skipper Yuvraj Singh and coach Tom Moody confirmed the news. Moody went to the extent of saying that Harbhajan’s behavior is intolerable. Latest reports suggest that Harbhajan later went to the dressing room and apologised to Sreesanth. But Harbhajan is unlikely to escape the BCCI hammer. It would be interesting to see the consequences of this deplorable incident. Kings XI have launched a formal complaint against Harbhajan to IPL match referee.

Indian Premier League Teams

I P L Teams : Bangalore Royal Challengers (Bangalore) Chennai Super Kings (Chennai) Delhi DareDevils (Delhi) Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad) Rajasthan Royals (Jaipur) Kolkata Knight Riders (Kolkata) Kings XI Punjab (Mohali) Mumbai Indians (Mumbai)

Kings XI Punjab

Kings XI Punjab Owner: Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing), Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendra Group) and Mohit Burman (Dabur) Franchise fee: $76 million Most expensive player: Yuvraj Singh - $1,063,750 Players : Yuvraj Singh Brett Lee Kumar Sangakkara Mahela Jayawardene Irfan Pathan Ramnaresh Sarwan S Sreesanth Ajitesh Argal Piyush Chawla Pankaj Dharmani Rishi Dhawan Nitin Saini Vikram Singh Tanmay Srivastava Karan Goel J ames Hopes Simon Katich Uday Kaul Luke Pomersbach Sunny Sohal Sahil Kukreja Shaun Marsh Kyle Mills Wilkin Mota Ramesh Powar