The Hindu : Sport : Kings XI Punjab saunters to victory

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Kings XI Punjab saunters to victory

K.C. Vijaya Kumar

Sreesanth’s early strike pegs back Royal Challengers Bangalore

— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

THROUGH THE GATE: Royal Challengers’ Cameron White has no clue to this express delivery from Sreesanth of Kings XI during their IPL match on Monday.

Bangalore: Punjabi interludes wafted in the breeze at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday night as Kings XI Punjab notched its fifth successive victory in the DLF Indian Premier League.

In a fire-and-ice performance, mirrored by S. Sreesanth’s twin-strike in the match’s first over and Shaun Marsh’s valuable 39 (34b, 4x4, 1x6), Kings XI defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by six-wickets.

Kings XI has 10 points from seven matches and Royal Challengers continued to slip and has four from seven outings.

Chasing the home side’s meagre 126, Kings XI stumbled initially as opener James Hopes found a diving Cameron White while Zaheer Khan exulted in the innings’ second over.

Ramnaresh Sarwan ambled in and drove the bowlers to distraction, threading boundaries through a packed off-side manned by four fielders. Sarwan’s cameo (31, 30b, 5x4, 1x6) that fizzled out in Praveen Kumar’s wicket-maiden, ensured that the visitor was ahead of the required run-rate.

Rich vein

Praveen then had Yuvraj warming debutant Devraj Patil’s gloves but southpaw Marsh, in a rich vein of form, ensured that the chase was on track. After depositing Praveen’s short-pitched delivery over the mid-wicket ropes, Marsh displayed his rising confidence in an Anil Kumble over.

He twinkle-toed to long-on, cut one through Steyn’s sloppy hands at short third-man and then swept one past square-leg.

Marsh later played all over as Zaheer rifled one into the stumps but with just 21 runs required from 34 deliveries, Kings XI sauntered to victory in 18.2 overs.

Finishing touch

Mahela Jayawardene and Irfan Pathan lent the finishing touch. Pathan lofted Kumble for a six to tie the scores before a wide ushered in the winning run.

Royal Challengers bowlers, especially the seamers, gamely tried to stymie the chase but with its batting line-up, with the exception of skipper Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli, failing to contribute, it was another tale of tilting at the windmills.

Earlier after Yuvraj opted to bowl on a pitch that largely delivered on its promise of bounce, Sreesanth added his share of swing and seam to first snare Wasim Jaffer and darted in his next delivery, confounding White and castling the stumps.

Kallis stranded

With the scorecard wobbling at one for two, Jacques Kallis scuttled Sreesanth’s hat-trick attempt, but was stranded soon as he charged down from the non-strikers end after Kohli pushed Irfan Pathan straight to a charging Marsh at short cover.

Familiar situation

Dravid (66, 51b, 9x4, 1x6) walked in at 15 for three and faced with a familiar situation of retrieving the innings, allowed the Kings XI speedsters to enjoy their initial swing while Kohli found his runs with nips and glides.

Dravid then leant into his cover drive off Sreesanth and slashed V.R.V. Singh to ease nerves. Later Kohli greeted Sreesanth’s second spell’s first delivery with a swat past covers.

The fourth-wicket partnership yielded 54 runs of 52 deliveries when Kohli fell on 34. Dravid meanwhile streaked the outfield with flashing front foot drives. He carved two fours and a six in a V.R.V. Singh over before finding the fielder at third-man and soon the innings petered out in 19.2 overs.

The scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore: W. Jaffer c Kaul b Sreesanth 0,V. Kohli c Sreesanth b Irfan 34, C. White b Sreesanth 0, J. Kallis (run out) 0, R. Dravid c Jayawardene b V.R.V. Singh 66, Misbah lbw b Chawla 8, Praveen c Kaul b Chawla 0, D. Patil (run out) 4, Zaheer b Chawla 0, A. Kumble (run out ) 3, D. Steyn (not out) 1; Extras: (lb-1, w-9) 10; Total: (in 19.2 overs) 126.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-1, 3-15, 4-69, 5-98, 6-98, 7-102, 8-116, 9-124.

Kings XI Punjab bowling: Sreesanth 4-0-16-2, Irfan 3.2-0-13-1, Gagandeep 3-0-28-0, V.R.V. Singh 4-0-33-1, Chawla 4-0-25-3, Hopes 1-0-10-0.

Kings XI Punjab: S. Marsh b Zaheer 39, J. Hopes c White b Zaheer 5, R. Sarwan c Devraj b Praveen 31, Yuvraj c Devraj b Praveen 1, M. Jayawardene (not out) 17, Irfan (not out) 17; Extras: (lb-10, w-7) 17; Total: (for four wickets in 18.2 overs) 127.

Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-65, 3-81, 4-106.

Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling: Steyn 4-0-16-0, Zaheer4-0-29-2, Praveen 4-1-22-2, Kallis 3-0-14-0, Kumble 3.2-0-36-0.

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