Dhawan, Mishra star in Deccan Chargers win

Dhawan, Mishra star in Deccan Chargers win

Dhawan's 95 and Mishra's hat-trick rock Punjab as Chargers win by 82 runs. Result ensures MI and KKR qualify for play-off

An aggressive unbeaten knock from Deccan Chargers opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan (95 off 57 balls with 14 fours & one six) and some fine leg spin bowling by Amit Mishra that saw him pick up IPL-IV's first hat-trick, handed an 82-run defeat to Kings XI Punjab at the HPCA Stadium here on Saturday. Saturday's result ensured that Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians make up the top four of the IPL.


Hat-trick hero Amit Mishra (centre) celebrates Deccan's victory.
Pic/AFP

Punjab have only themselves to blame for the slip up. Firstly, one could not comprehend why Punjab skipper Adam Gilchrist erred by opting to bowl when his team had comprehensively won their previous two encounters here batting first.  Then, some inaccurate bowling and lacklustre fielding saw Punjab give away heaps of runs. Dhawan and Ravi Teja (60 off 41 balls with five fours and two sixes) took advantage of the fullish bowling to extract as many as 131 runs in just 13.2 overs before Teja was finally caught by Abhishek Nayar at deep midwicket -- this after being dropped four times by the Punjab fielders.

Butterfingers
First, Paul Valthaty put down a difficult chance off the fourth ball of the innings off Praveen Kumar at deep square leg when Teja hadn't even opened his account. Teja was dropped again, this time a tough take though, by Chawla off his own bowling. Teja was on 24 at the time. He was then dropped twice by Ryan Harris at mid-on and long-on, both times off Valthaty, when on 37 and 58 respectively.

In reply, Kings XI Punjab were never really in the hunt. After just getting Dale Steyn away for a boundary square of the wicket, Valthaty tried to loft him off the very next delivery but only managed to give a simple catch to Anand Rajan at mid-on. Orange cap bearer Shaun Marsh (13) then stepped in, slammed three fours and fell to Jean Paul Duminy in the next over -- edging to third man to be taken again by Rajan.

Gilchrist looked to be carrying his fine form from the previous match where he scored a 55-ball 106 runs against Royals Challlengers Bangalore, but when he fell (caught at extra cover by Chargers' skipper Cameron White off Dan Christian) for a well-made 51 off 37 balls (6 fours and 2 sixes) it was curtains for Punjab, who still needed 115 runs off 56 balls at nearly 13 an over.

Leggie Mishra then stepped in to do the clearing job and got a neat hat-trick in the bargain. In the 16th over he first picked up Ryan McLaren trying to sweep but only managing to find Dan Christian at deep midwicket. Off the next ball Mishra drew Mandeep Singh out and had him stumped by Kedar Devdhar. Ryan Harris was the hat-trick victim trying to cut, snapped up by Dhawan at gully contributing to Mishra's super figures of 4-9.

Scoreboard
Deccan Chargers
S Dhawan not out 95
R Teja c Nayar b Valthaty 60
JP Duminy c Marsh b Harris 12
CL White not out 15
Extras: (LB-8, W-8) 16
Total: (For 2 wickets in 20 overs) 198
Fall of wickets: 1-131, 2-158
Bowling: P Kumar 3-0-26-0,
RJ Harris 4-0-35-1, BA Bhatt 3-0-33-0, PP Chawla 4-0-48-0, PC Valthaty 4-0-24-1, R McLaren 2-0-24-0.
Kings XI Punjab
P Valthaty c Rajan b Steyn 5
A Gilchrist c White b Christian 51
S Marsh c Rajan b Duminy 13
D Karthik c Teja b Christian 11
R McLaren c Christian b Mishra 9
A Nayar c Christian b Ojha 3
M Singh st Devdhar b Mishra 7 P Chawla not out 13
R Harris c Dhawan b Mishra 0 P Kumar b Mishra 0
B Bhatt run out (Rajan) 0 Extras: (LB 2, W 2) 4
Total: (all out in 19 overs) 116
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-22, 3-83, 4-84, 5-91, 6-102, 7-102, 8-102, 9-104, 10-116.
Bowling: J P Duminy 4-0-23-1, Dale Steyn 3-0-13-1, Anand Rajan 2-0-23-0, Pragyan Ojha 3-0-25-1,
Daniel Christian 3-0-21-2, Amit Mishra 4-1-9-4.
Result: Deccan won by 82 runs
Man of the match: Shikhar Dhawan (Deccan Chargers)