It was bhangra time for the 30,000-strong home crowd and Bollywood star Preity Zinta who savoured Kings XI’s first victory. In a contest between two teams that had yet to taste success in the tournament, the Mumbai team never came close to chasing 182 runs scored by Kings XI in their 20 overs and were restricted to 116 for nine at the end of 20 overs.

Kumar Sangakkara hit a brilliant 94 off 56 balls for the home team which lost their last six wickets for only 44 runs after they were put into bat by the rival captain Harbhajan Singh.

Chasing an achievable target on a batting wicket, the Mumbai Indians were bamboozled by a brilliant spell of bowling from Piyush Chawla (2/16 in four overs). Irfan Pathan (2/19) offered fine support after Brett Lee (1/9) had produced a fiery opening spell to rattle the Indians.

Chawla claimed the wickets of Dwayne Bravo and Saurabh Tewari in two overs to leave the Mumbai team at 91 for five in the 13th over. Irfan Pathan joined the party by taking the wickets of Abhishek Nayar and captain Harbhajan Singh off successive balls to reduce the visitors to 94 for seven.

Stunning catch

Shaun Pollock attempted to revive their chase by hitting two sixes and a four in a V R V Singh over which cost 22 runs. However, he was out to a stunning catch at extra cover by Yuvraj Singh which effectively ended the Mumbai chase.

Earlier, Harbhajan took the mantle of captaincy for the third successive match after Mumbai's icon player Sachin Tendulkar was ruled out yet again.

When the Kings XI were bowled out for 182 they would have been disappointed with their final effort after getting off to a great start to reach 152 for four in 15 overs. However, fine spells of bowling from Harbhajan and Dhawal Kulkarni checked the home team’s progress despite Sangakkara’s superb knock.

Sangakkara added 73 runs for the second wicket with Karan Goel who scored a patient 18 runs. The rest of the batting could not contribute much to the tally.

score board

KINGS XI PUNJAB: Goel (run out) 18; Pathan c Kulkarni b Nehra 6; Sangakkara c Kulkarni b Harbhajan 94; Yuvraj c Bravo b Pollock 18; Sarwan c Harbhajan b Nehra 7; Jayawardene c Nayar b Harbhajan 12; Sohal c Nehra b Kulkarni 0; Lee (not out) 16; Chawla lbw b Harbhajan 0; Sreesanth c Ronchi b Kulkarni 0; VRV Singh (run out) 4. Extras: (B-1, LB-1, WD-4, NB-1) 7; Total (all out in 20 overs) 182.
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-81, 3-107, 4-121, 5-152, 6-155, 7-159, 8-169, 9-170. Bowling: Pollock 4-0-40-1, Nehra 3-0-22-2, Kulkarni 4-0-37-2, Harbhajan 4-0-32-3, Bravo 3-0-27-0, Khote 2-0-22-0.
Mumbai Indians: Ronchi (run out) 11; Jayasuriya c & b Lee 1; Uthappa c Sarwan b VRV Singh 21; Bravo b Chawla 23; Tiwary b Chawla 17; Pollock c Yuvraj b Sreesanth 22; Nayar c Chawla b Pathan 2; Harbhajan lbw Pathan 0; Khote hit wicket b Sreesanth 8; Kulkarni (not out) 2; Nehra (not out) 2; Extras (LB-1, WD-4, NB-2) 7; Total (for 9 wkts in 20 overs) 116.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-14, 3-61, 4-65, 5-91, 6-94, 7-94, 8-105, 9-110. Bowling: Lee 4-0-9-1, Pathan 4-1-19-2, VRV Singh 4-0-40-1, Sreesanth 4-0-31-2, P Chawla 4-0-16-2.