Mishra bags hat-trick as Deccans dash Punjab's play-off hopes

Chasing 199 to win, Punjab only managed to score 116 all out in 19 overs at the pictersque HPCA stadium with captain Adam Gilchrist being the top scorer with 51.

Brought back into the attack in the 16th over, Mishra removed Ryan McLaren, Mandeep Singh and Ryan Harris off successive deliveries to record his second hat-trick in the history of the Twenty20 tournament.

Mishra has now joined Yuvraj Singh as the only player in the IPL to have recorded two hat-tricks. Apart from these two players, Kolkata Knight Riders' Lakshmipathy Balaji, Chennai Super Kings' Makhaya Ntini and Mumbai Indians' Rohit Sharma had achieved the feat in the previous editions of the event.

After the Deccans rode on Shikhar Dhawan's unbeaten 95 and Ravi Teja's 60 to post an imposing 198 for two, Mishra took the centrestage to return with superb figures of 4-1-9-4 and spin his team to victory.

Punjab's defeat means that Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight riders now confirm berths in the play-offs. Mishra bowled a googly to McLaren, who tried to clear the fence but in the end only found Daniel Christian latching on to the ball at deep midwicket to complete a good low catch.

Mandeep Singh was stumped by Kedar Devdhar in his bid to accelerate the scoring. Harris was caught by Shikhar Dhawan at second slip, as the googly by Mishra bounced extra from outside off and took the Punjab batsman by surprise who tried to cut the ball towards point.

Chasing a daunting target, Punjab skipper Gilchrist cashed in on a dropped chance to notch up his second fifty this IPL season. His aggressive 37-ball knock consisted of two sixes and six fours.

In a surprise move by skipper Cameron White, South African recruit Jean-Paul Duminy opened the bowling for Deccan in their last game of the season 4. Duminy bowled a tight over barring a last-ball boundary scored by Gilchrist.

Valthaty (5), one of the finds of this IPL season and Punjab's leading run-scorer behind Australian Shaun Marsh, failed to fire in the crunch game and was dismissed by pacer Dale Steyn in his first over.

Steyn hurled a fuller delivery on the middle stump line which landed around leg and middle and curved towards middle. Valthaty, in his bid to clear the ball, gave a simple catch to Anand Rajan at mid-on.

Punjab, for the first four overs managed to keep the Deccan openers quiet with occassional boundaries, but Dhawan broke the deadlock in the fifth over bowled by Praveen to hit him for successive boundaries.

Dhawan then hit Harris for couple of fours in the next over to take the team's total past 50-run mark. Teja soon followed suit and hit leg-spinner Chawla for two boundaries in his first over to put Chargers on top before the first strategic time out in their last league game of the season 4.

Both the openers were on song and reduced Punjab bowlers to mere pedestrians with their brutal hitting. Teja was more attacking of the two as he hit Ryan McLaren for three fours in the 11th over to bring up the 100 for the Chargers.

In the 13th over, he hit Chawla for two consecutive sixes and a four to bring his 50. In the end, Valthaty got the prized wicket of Teja, who was caught by Abhishek Nayar at deep midwicket.

Next-man in, Jean-Paul Duminy (15) then joined forces with Dhawan and took the team total past 150-run mark. Dhawan continued with his attacking streak and treated the Punjab spin duo of Chawla and Bhatt with disdain, clobbering them for fours and sixes.
Duminy was caught by Shaun Marsh off Ryan Harris at mid-off in his bid to clear the ball.
Dhawan and skipper White (15) then took the total near 200-run mark.

Scoreboard of the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium here Saturday.

Deccan Chargers:
Shikhar Dhawan not out 95
Ravi Teja c Nayar b Valthaty 60
Jean Paul Duminy c Marsh b Harris 12
Cameron White not out 15
Extras (lb 8, w 8) 16
Total (for two wickets in 20 overs) 198
Fall of wickets: 1-131 (Ravi Teja, 13.2 overs), 2-158 (Duminy, 16.1)
Bowling:
Praveen Kumar 3-0-26-0
Ryan Harris 4-0-35-1
Bhargav Bhatt 3-0-33-0
Piyush Chawla 4-0-48-0
Paul Valthaty 4-0-24-1
Ryan McLaren 2-0-24-0

Kings XI Punjab:
Paul Valthaty c Anand Rajan b Steyn 5
Adam Gilchrist c White b Christian 51
Shaun Marsh c Anand Rajan b Duminy 13
Dinesh Karthik c Ravi Teja b Christian 11
Ryan McLaren c Christian b Mishra 9
Abhishek Nayar c Christian b Ojha 3
Mandeep Singh st Devdhar b Mishra 7
Piyush Chawla not out 13
Ryan Harris c Dhawan b Mishra 0
Praveen Kumar b Mishra 0
Bhargav Bhatt run out (Anand Rajan) 0
Extras (lb 2, w 2) 4               
Total (all out in 19 overs) 116
Fall of wickets 1-9 (Valthaty, 1.4 overs), 2-22 (Marsh, 2.6), 3-83 (Gilchrist, 10.4), 4-84 (Karthik, 10.6), 5-91 (Nayar, 13.3), 6-102 (McLaren, 15.3), 7-102 (Mandeep Singh, 15.4), 8-102 (Harris, 15.5), 9-104 (Kumar, 17.1), 10-116 (Bhatt, 18.6)
Bowling   
Jean Paul Duminy 4-0-23-1
Dale Steyn    3-0-13-1
Anand Rajan     2-0-23-0
Pragyan Ojha 3-0-25-1
Daniel Christian 3-0-21 -2
Amit Mishra    4-1-9-4

Toss: Kings XI Punjab, who chose to field
Umpires: Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and Ameish Saheba (India)
TV umpire: Suresh Shastri (India)
Match referee: Graeme Labrooy (Sri Lanka)