The Kings XI Punjab finally broke their duck in the third season of the Indian Premier League, stunning the Chennai Super Kings at home last night in a Super Over finish after only the second ever tie in the competition. The Super Kings have themselves to blame for the defeat after labouring over what should have been a comfortable run-chase at less than seven an over. They wasted a 65-run start between Matthew Hayden (33) and Parthiv Patel (57), and were left needing 10 from the final over.
Albie Morkel managed to slash Irfan Pathan's first delivery for a four and took two off the next. A single followed, bringing Ravichandran Ashwin on strike and he got two from the fourth bowl of the over to level the scores, but failed to get the single needed for the win. Going into the Super Over, the Super Kings managed just nine, with Matthew Hayden and Suresh Raina getting dismissed inside five balls of the Juan Theron over. Mahela Jayawardene then paved the way for King XI's first win in four games with a massive six off Muttiah Muralitharan from the first ball and Yuvraj Singh reverse-swept the Sri Lanka spinner for the winning runs.
"We needed a win badly," said Yuvraj. "We stuck together in this game and the bowlers did a fantastic job. They gave nothing away." Yuvraj had played a big part in the Punjab innings earlier as they batted first. Averaging just 17 runs in three previous innings, he smashed his way out of the slump with 43 as the visitors posted a fighting score. Muralitharan (three for 16) inflicted most of the damage on the Kings XI, and his scalps included Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain and vice-captain. The veteran off-spinner was delighted to get his two international teammates, saying: "It's not often that I'll dismiss them both in the same innings." arizvi@thenational.ae
Kings XI Punjab: Ravi Bopara c Balaji b Morkel 1 Irfan Pathan b Balaji 39 Kumar Sangakkara st Patel b Muralitharan 15 Mahela Jayawardene lbw Muralitharan 3 Yuvraj Singh c sub (Bailey) b Morkel 43 Mohd Kaif c Morkel b Muralitharan 14 Manvinder Bisla run out (Hayden/Morkel) 7 Piyush Chawla (not out) 8 Juan Theron run out (Raina) 0 Ramesh Powar not out 2 Extras (2lb, 2w): 4 Total (for 8 wkts, 20 overs): 136 Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-54, 3-58, 4-64, 5-109, 6-124, 7-124, 8-125 Bowling: Albie Morkel 3-0-21-1 Manpreet Gony 2-0-20-0 Ravichandran Ashwin 4-0-32-0 Lakshmipathy Balaji 4-0-29-1 Muttiah Muralitharan 4-0-16-3 Justin Kemp 0.1-0-1-0 Suresh Raina 1.5-0-13-0. Chennai Super Kings: Parthiv Patel st Sangakkara b Chawla 57 Matthew Hayden b Powar 33 Suresh Raina run out (Theron) 15 Murali Vijay lbw Theron 0 Subramaniam Badrinath c Sangakkara b Yuvraj 2 Albie Morkel not out 12 Manpreet Gony b Theron 2 Ravichandran Ashwin c Kaif b Pathan 2 Extras (2b, 3lb, 7w, 1nb): 13 Total (for 7 wkts, 20 overs): 136. Fall of wickets: 1-65, 2-94, 3-95, 4-102, 5-121, 6-127, 7-136. Bowling: Irfan Pathan 3-0-22-1 (1w) Ramesh Powar 4-0-22-1 (1nb) Shalabh Srivasatava 3-0-25-0 (2w) Juan Theron 4-0-17-2 (3w) Piyush Chawla 4-0-27-1 Yuvraj Singh 2-0-18-1