Monday, May 16, 2011

Match 60 - IPL 2011 - Kings XI Punjab Vs Delhi Daredevils : Paul Valthaty keeps Kings XI Punjab hopes alive { Kings XI Punjab beat Delhi Daredevils by 29 runs‎ }

Kings XI Punjab 170 for 6 (Valthaty 62, Marsh 46, Irfan 3-28) beat Delhi Daredevils 141 for 8 (Chawla 3-16) by 29 runs
Kings XI Punjab beat Delhi Daredevils by 29 runs
      The Kings XI Punjab needed nothing less than a win to keep them in the race for a semi-final spot as they took on the Delhi Daredevils at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, in Dharamsala for the 60th match of the exhilarating Indian Premier League 2011, on May 15, 2011.

 Adam Gilchrist, the Kings XI captain and his Delhi Daredevil counterpart, James Hopes, made their way on to pitch for the pre-match toss.

For once Gilchrist was on the losing side of the coin flip but Hopes’ decision to bowl first might have played into the Punjab side’s favour.
Valthaty 62
    Paul Valthaty, who had become relatively quiet after his performances early on in the IPL, and Gilchrist opened the batting for the Punjab side as Irfan Pathan looked to send at least one batsman back to pavilion early on.

It was the Delhi fans who had a reason to cheer in the fourth over as Gilchrist continued his poor form with the bat when Morkel had him out on just nine runs. The Australian batsman sent the ball flying towards David Warner who made no mistake with the catch.

Shaun Marsh, one of the players of the tournament then embarked on 102 run partnership with Valthaty before Pathan had him out just four runs shy of his half-century.

Valthaty followed Marsh back to the pavilion on the very next delivery when he was clean bowled by Pathan on, what would later be, a match winning 62 runs.

Wickets fell regularly after that as David Hussey, Mandeep Singh and Dinesh Karthik departed for three, 11 and 46 runs respectively.

Eventually Delhi bowlers were able to get their side back into the match, restricting the Kings XI to a 170 run total.

Needing over 8.5 runs per over, Naman Ojha and David Warner were under a fair amount of pressure as they made their way to begin the second innings.

The pair would get their side off to a strong start, putting together 52 runs on the board before Srivastava would dismiss the two batsmen in an almost identical fashion with Gilchrist taking both the catches.

The Delhi Daredevils just could not seem to get a worthwhile partnership going after the loss of their opening batsmen.

Wickets fell regularly and none of the batsmen managed to score more than 16 runs as Chawla ripped through them with a three wicket haul.

In the end, the Delhi Daredevils crawled their way to a 141 run total and ended up losing the match by a margin of 29 runs.

It kept the Kings XI Punjab in with a chance of being among the four teams to proceed to next round as the IPL nears its climax.

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