All the matches in the last leg of IPL 2009 league round are turning out to be thrillers and the best among those was the one between Punjab Kings XI and Deccan chargers on Sunday. The match was of greater significance with both the teams eying to concrete their spot in the semifinals. The fight too lasted till the last ball making it a worth watching one. At the end Kings overcame all the odds to land home with a single run win made possible mainly by Irfan’s fabulous bowling in the final over and Yuvraj’s remarkable spell in the middle.

Last three overs projected the need of a whopping 43 runs for Hyderabad and Rohit getting on to his dangerous form for the first time in IPL Second Season made it enthralling by scoring 18 off Mota’s over and 14 off Lee’s next over. Last over started with a double by him and the next one from Irfan was dismissed by him to fetch 4 runs. Irfan was full of nervous and he went for a wide then making it an easy looking 4 from 4. Then came the twist with Irfan uprooting the leg stump of Rohit on the next delivery. A dot ball then and receiving a miss hit of RP Singh on the next; Irfan made it a one ball four required for Deccan with Harris on strike. He hit it hard but only to find a fielder out there in the square leg and all they could run was a double making the match in Punjab’s kitty.

It was Yuvraj who made it a match with his marvelous piece of bowling which found the Chargers misbalancing in the middle overs. After the strategic time out Yuvraj got rid of Gibbs who was reshaping the innings with Symmonds in the 12th over and once again he struck in the 14th over by removing dangerous man Symmonds and then Rao on the immediate next ball. He also dared to bring in Powar in the 4th over when Gilchrist was mincing the bowlers all down. Powar scalped Gilchrist and Suman on consecutive deliveries to stress down the Chargers. The credit also goes to the rest of the bowlers who all rose to the occasion to defend a small total to extend their life in the IPL 2009.

Earlier batting first Punjab collapsed like a pack of cards as the top order went back earning nothing. Yuvraj too surrendered just before the break with the run rate settling far below 6 runs. Sangakkara fought it all alone and he could snatch 38 runs along with Irfan from overs 15 to 17. With Sangakkara falling then after scoring his 6th IPL fifty all Punjab could score was 18 off the last three overs. RP Singh made the difference with a fabulous spell of 3 for 26 and he once again wears the purple cap now in DLF IPL 2009.

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

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