JOIN USSangakkara on song as Kings upstage Indians
The whipping boys of IPL III turned the tables on an insipid Mumbai team, cruising to a six-wicket victory with captain Kumar Sangakkara (56 off 42 balls) leading the way in chasing down a modest Mumbai total.
For once, everything fell in place for Kings XI with their bowlers, particularly Chawla (3/24) and Pathan (3/29), helping restrict the strong Mumbai batting line-up to 154 for nine.
Adrian Barath, playing only his second match for Kings XI, got his team off to a brisk start along with Mahela Jayawardene as the two posted 41 in 4.3 overs before Jaywardene fell for 31 off 18 balls with seven boundaries. Barath scored 33 off 27 balls. Man of the match Sangakkara, aided by small contributions from Yuvraj and Irfan – both scoring 15 each -- brought the team on the brink of victory before holing out to Shikhar Dhawan off Lasith Malinga in the penultimate over.
Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and chose to bat. After losing Dhawan to Pathan, Ambati Rayudu, coming at one down, played a blistering innings of 33 off only 17 balls with seven hits to the fence before becoming Chawla’s first victim. Chawla, whose googlies skidded off the surface, accounted for Sourabh Tiwari and Tendulkar in his next two overs to leave Mumbai tottering at 70 for four in the 11th over.
Tendulkar, who was subdued and much below his fluent best for most part of his innings, was bowled trying a cross-batted sweep for 29 off 25 balls with three boundaries. Chawla’s bowling figures read three for off three overs during his purple patch that sucked the heart out of the Mumbai batting.
Jean-Paul Duminy (35 n.o., 28b, 2x4, 2x6), R Sathish (20 off 17) and Kieron Pollard (18) contributed to the Mumbai total but failed to provide the decisive late surge as there was a flurry of wickets in the last three overs.
Besides Chawla, Pathan was the pick of bowlers but Brett Lee again disappointed, as going wicketless in his four overs conceding 38 runs.
Despite losing their second successive match on Friday after defeat at the hands of Chennai Super Kings a few days ago, the Mumbai Indians with 14 points from 10 matches are still on top of the table. Kings XI have six points from 11 matches with no hope of making it to the last four.
SCORE BOARD
MUMBAI INDIANS: Shikhar Dhawan b Pathan 2, Sachin Tendulkar b Chawla 29, Ambati Rayudu b Chawla 33, Saurabh Tiwary st Sangakkara b Chawla 4, Jean-Paul Duminy (run out) 35, R Sathish c Sangakkara b Pathan 20, Kieron Pollard b Pathan 18, Harbhajan Singh c Sangakkara b Ablish 9, Ryan McLaren b Ablish 0, Zaheer Khan (not out) 0. Extras (LB-3, W-1) 4. Total (for 9 wkts, 20 overs) 154.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-51, 3-59, 4-70, 5-96, 6-134, 7-152, 8-154, 9-154.
Bowling: Brett Lee 4-0-38-0, Irfan Pathan 4-0-29-3, Love Ablish 2-0-17-2, Piyush Chawla 4-0-24-3, Yuvraj Singh 2-0-15-0, Ramesh Powar 4-0-28-0.
KINGS XI PUNJAB: Adrian Barath lbw Duminy 33, Mahela Jayawardene c Tiwary b Malinga 31, Kumar Sangakkara c Dhawan b Malinga 56, Yuvraj Singh c Duminy b Pollard 15, Irfan Pathan (not out) 15, Reetinder Singh Sodhi (not out) 4. Extras (LB-1, W-3) 4. Total (for 4 wkts, 19.2 overs) 158.
Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-87, 3-125, 4-147.
Bowling: Ryan McLaren 2-0-13-0, Zaheer Khan 3.2-0-36-0, Lasith Malinga 4-0-36-2, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-34-0, R Sathish 2-0-14-0, Jean-Paul Duminy 3-0-15-1, Kieron Pollard 1-0-9-1.