It was a do or die game for Kings XI and they did better that their opponents to live another day. Kings XI skipper Yuvraj Singh won the toss and elected to field first.

The moment Kings XI announced their playing eleven, retaining Sreesanth and once again missing out on Jayawardene, the focus was always going to remain on how they bowled. Especially if their last couple of matches were to be considered where the side had given away runs in plenty. Yuvraj had time and again pointed out that bowlers needed to be more responsible.

This was a match Kings XI Punjab needed to win to keep their semi’s hopes alive but chasing 121 for victory they put themselves into all sorts of trouble and at one point it looked their bowlers good work would come to zero.

With the ball keeping low and slow the Delhi batsmen struggled and had it not been for the 50-run partnership between Dinesh Karthik and Mithun Manhas, they would have been in even more trouble.

Top-scorer Karthik (32 off 29 balls) and Manhas (26 off 25 balls) fell trying to clear the ropes. Opener Gambhir (8), skipper Sehwag (9), in-form Dilshan (10) all flopped miserably. Brett Lee, who gave away seven runs in his first over, bowled a superb spell, giving away just eight in his next three and picking up three wickets.

The Punjab pace trio of Brett Lee (3 for15), S. Sreesanth (2 for 20) and Irfan Pathan (2 for 22) vindicated skipper Yuvraj Singh's decision to field first by restricting the Delhi Daredevils batsmen to 120 for 9.

Irfan Pathan, who picked up 2 for 22 during the Delhi Daredevils innings, blasted three sixes in his 11-ball unbeaten 21 and along with Kumar Sangakkara (43 not out off 47 balls), guided Punjab through with 5 balls to spare. Simon Katich and skipper Yuvraj also contributed well scoring 20 and 18 runs respectively.

Kings XI next play Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings, the 2nd and 3rd most formidable opponents in IPL this year, after Daredevils.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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