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Kings XI cruises home

K.C. Vijaya Kumar

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

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

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

Ramnaresh Sarwan ambled in and threaded boundaries through a packed off-side. Sarwan’s cameo (31, 30b, 5x4, 1x6), which 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 Singh 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.

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.

The scores:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 126 in 19.2 overs.

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 wkts. 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, Zaheer 4-0-29-2, Praveen 4-1-22-2, Kallis 3-0-14-0, Kumble 3.2-0-36-0.

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