Earlier Punjab Kings XI won the toss and put Rajasthan Royals to bat first. After their bowlers bungled with the ball in gifting lot of runs, the chase by Punjab Kings XI started disastrously.  Opener Sohal edged the first ball to Shane Warne to take the catch at first slip and even before the Innings began there was a duck. From then on it was a parade of batsmen to the pavilion one by one – Karan Goel (1); Simon Katich (10); Kumar Sangakkara (11) and Mahela Jayawardane (9) to face deep trouble with 53/5 at 10 overs. Yuvaraj Singh fought a losing battle with 48 in 37 balls before falling to Amit Singh. The team could thus gather only 133/8.

Greame Smith for his fine knock with the bat was rewarded Man of the Match.

Watch the tussle holding your breath and this is what the audience did today at the IPL match between Kings XI Punjab and Kolkatta Knight Riders.

Mahela Jayawardane and Irfan Pathan of Punjab Team are the batsmen. It boils down to 2 runs in 2 balls to win the match by reaching a total of 154. Ajit Agarkar is the bowler, who sends the first of the two balls to Jayawardane. The batsman gets a single only. The scores are level. The last ball to be faced by Irfan Pathan should produce the winning run. Ajit Agarkar bowls….Irfan Pathan very confidently strikes at the center of the ball, which flies to the boundary.  Thus Kings XI Punjab wins the match, which now pushes Kolkatta Knight Riders out of the IPL contest virtually.

Earlier Kokatta Knight Riders won the toss and batted first.  Brad Hodge put a superior performance with his bat till the end, to accumulate 70 runs not out. Sourav Ganguly (22); Captain Brenden McCullum (19); Morne van Wyk (18); and Chris Gayle (17) – all of them contribute their mite to push up the team total to a respectable 153/3 at the end of 20 overs.  Understandably KKR was in a dire situation to win all their remaining 7 matches to stay in the contest and the batsmen of the team put up a good show.  But the batsmen of Punjab team out-performed them – Sunny Sohal (25); Simon Katich (34); Mahela Jayawardane (52 not out); Yuvaraj Singh (14) and Iran Pathan (19).

Mahela Jayawardane for his unbeaten 52 got the Man of the Match award.

Chennai Super Kings could not have asked for better, when Captain Dhoni made a change on Saturday, in adding a brand new bowler in their team – Shadab Bashir Jakati, as the youngster restricted the Delhi Dare Devils’ batsmen from running away with a win. He took the precious 4 wickets of David Warner (51), T.M. Dilshan (13), Dinesh Karthik (52) and Pradeep Sangwan (0) giving away just 24 runs.  These batsmen almost made it to a win, chasing the defendable total of 164, but were dismissed at crucial times. Another CSK new bowler Sudeep Tyagi accounted for the dangerous Gowtham Gambir and AB deVilliers to go back to the pavilion with 13 and 0 runs respectively.

Delhi Dare Devils won the toss and put CSK to bat first, who used the opportunity to best advantage. Mathew Hyden (30), Murali Vijai (14), Suresh Raina (32), Badrinath (45) and S.B. Jakati (13) – all of them contributed well with their bats, to push up the score to a defendable 164 at the end of 20 overs. In chasing this score, Delhi team without their Captain Shewag, rested for an injury, made good efforts. Special mention should be made about the new Australian batsman David Warner, who showed signs of wonderful batting in making 51 runs in the very first match.

S.B. Jakati for his fine performance with the ball was adjudged as the Man of the Match.

Earlier Deccan Chargers won the toss and Gilchrist and Gibbs smashed over 30 runs in the initial 3 overs. Rohit Sharma (38) and Suman (41 not out) kept the game going in the right path to finish at 141/5. They could have won the match, but for the team spirit of Rajasthan Royals in concentrating their efforts.

Yusuf Pathan the fine finishing batsman was Man of the Match.

The winning streak of Deccan Chargers was broken today by Delhi Daredevils.  The performance of Delhi Daredevils’ batsmen TM Dilshan (52 n/o) (who already won another match single handedly against Royal Challengers) and Wicket Keeper Dinesh Karthik steadied the Innings after the early fall of Captain Sheawag (20) and Gowtham Gambir (17).  Gambir was little bit unlucky to be given out lbw as the TV replay showed it was not.  Dilshan was steely enough in the death overs to smash fours and finally reached the target of 150 in 18.4 overs against Deccan Chargers’ 148/8.

Earlier, Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field.  Captain Adam Gilchrist and Pragyan Ohja opened the Innings. Ohja was run out by Daniel Vettori for just 1 run. Gilchrist (8) and Gibbs for a duck were dismissed by the fine bowling of Dirk Nannes. Inspite of the best efforts of Dwayne Smith (48), Bilakhia (22), Suman (23), and Venugopal Rao (16), the team could muster only 148 runs at the end of 20 overs giving away 8 wickets. The early fall of openers and formidable batsmen like Gillchrist and Gibbs was the dousing spirit of the team.

Dirk Nannes, the bowler who got these precious wickets was adjudged as the Man of the Match.