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Marsh stars in Kings XI’s win

A. Joseph Antony

— Photo: H. Satish

SHEET ANCHOR: Kings XI’s Shaun Marsh came up with an unbeaten half-century in his team’s seven-wicket win on Thursday.

HYDERABAD: Sailing on Shaun Marsh’s steady and chanceless, unbeaten 84 (62b, 11x4, 1x6), Kings XI Punjab cruised to a seven-wicket win over Deccan Chargers in the DLF-Indian Premier League match here on Thursday.

After a solid 41-run opening stand between Marsh and Ramnaresh Sarwan, the Punjab innings weathered the quick dismissals of Kumar Sangakkara and Yuvraj Singh and recouped through a productive and unbroken partnership between Marsh and Mahela Jayawardene.

Sticking together

The two stuck together, nudging the odd single now and then and opening up when the opportunities arose.

Marsh’s straight drive indirectly effected Sarwan exit, while Sangakkara perished, slashing at a Kalyanakrishna delivery.

Yuvraj’s attempted pull off Zoysa ended in a simple return catch to the lanky Lankan.

Earlier, a scintillating 76 by Rohit Sharma was instrumental in taking Chargers to the respectable total of 164 for eight.

Standing tall amidst the ruins of the home side’s innings, wracked repeatedly by the departure of its batsmen, the Mumbai lad collared the Punjab bowling, slamming two sixes and 10 fours in a stay spanning a little over an hour.

With little support from the other end, he soldiered on, severe at times on Sreesanth. His half-century came heaving V.R.V. Singh over long-on.

With the crowd rooting for Rohit, his boundaries seemed even harder hit, many of his strikes bouncing just once before ramming into the railings.

Vintage Laxman

After Yuvraj Singh had invited Deccan Chargers to take first strike, V.V.S. Laxman opened his account with a patented flick off an over-pitched offering from Sreesanth.

Slack-wristed as ever, Laxman made no compromise on elegance, digging out the yorker with as much aplomb as his fluid on-drives.

Chawla, the pick of the bowlers with a bag of three for 28, got Laxman in the end, the latter’s miscued drive pouched by Yuvraj in the covers.

The scores:

Deccan Chargers: A. Gilchrist b Pathan 6, V.V.S. Laxman c Yuvraj b Chawla 48, H. Gibbs c Goel b Chawla 7, Rohit (not out) 76, S. Afridi c Yuvraj b Gagandeep 13, Y.V. Venugopala Rao (run out) 1, S. Bangar c Sreesanth b Chawla 3, N. Zoysa b Sreesanth 1, D. Kalyanakrishna c Marsh b Pathan 3, R.P. Singh (not out) 2; Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-2): 4; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 164.

Fall of wickets: 1- 27, 2-54, 3-67, 4-90, 5-92, 6-98, 7-119, 8-154.

Kings XI Punjab bowling: Sreesanth 4-0-33-1, Pathan 4-0-30-2, V.R.V. Singh 4-0-34-0, Chawla 4-0-28-3, Gagandeep 4-0-37-1.

Kings XI Punjab: S. Marsh (not out) 84, R. Sarwan (run out) 15, K. Sangakkara c Rohit b Kalyanakrishna 3, Yuvraj c & b Zoysa 14, M. Jayawardene (not out) 45; Extras (lb-2, w-4): 6; Total (for three wkts. in 18.5 overs) 167.

Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2- 45, 3-86.

Deccan Chargers bowling: R.P. Singh 3.5-0-36-0, Zoysa 4-0-32-1, Afridi 3-0-28-0, Bangar 4-0-26-0, Kalyanakrishna 3-0-34-1, Venugopala 1-0-9-0.

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