Hyderabad, May 8: Kings XI Punjab rode on a smashing half-century by Mandeep Singh and a superlative performance by their bowers to notch up a comfortable 25-run victory over Deccan Chargers in a lop-sided Indian Premier League match here tonight.
Invited to bat, Mandeep cracked a strokeful 75 off 48 balls to help Punjab post a challenging 170 for five in their stipulated 20 overs.
The visitors then returned to restrict the Chargers to 145 for eight to keep their hopes alive of reaching the play-off stage by reaching the fifth position in the IPL points table.
Chasing 171 to win, opener Daniel Harris (30) gave Deccan some hope initially but they failed to build partnerships and kept losing wickets in regular intervals.
For Punjab, Praveen Kumar, Parvinder Awana and David Hussey took two wickets each to emerge as the peak of the bowlers. They were supported well by Azhar Mahmood (0/31) and Piyush Chawla (1/33).
The chargers had a tottering start as they lost inform opener Shikhar Dhawan (8) and first down Parthiv Patel (17) cheaply to slip to 31 for two in the first five overs.
In the seventh over, Harris picked up a six off the first ball by Chawla and Cameron White played an inside-out shot in the last delivery to end the over with a boundary.
In the next over, Harris picked up a four off Ramesh Powar at the square leg area before whacking one at the mid-wicket area for another boundary.
Punjab then tightened things up with seamers Awana and Mahmood giving away just four and two runs in the next two over respectively.
However, it was skipper David Hussey who broke Deccan's backbone, striking twice in four balls in his only over to dismiss the two set batsmen—Harris and White—and reduce Deccan to 71 for four.
