IPL: Punjab Pull Off A Last Ball Win Against Deccan

Every match is a near must win for Kings XI Punjab, and with stiffer opponents lined up, they could not have afforded to lose against the lowly Deccan Chargers. For a major part of the match it looked like Deccan would pull off the upset win, only for Kings XI to find a new hero in the dying stages of the match. It meant that DC suffered yet another last ball defeat , their sixth in this year's IPL.

Choosing to bat first, DC cranked up a big total of 190 on the board. Shikhar Dhawan who has been the cornerstone of their batting efforts yet again scored big with 71 off 50 balls. Their other top performer - Cameron White too produced the big hits to remain undefeated on 67. Daniel Christian with some last minute hustle took the team to a seemingly winning total. All the bowlers were put to the sword, while Parthiv Patel and Sangakarra failed yet again.

The start to the Kings XI chase was disappointing, as Saini and Marsh departed pretty soon. And once Mandeep Singh got dismissed after playing a cameo, the task seemed unsurmountable. Azhar Mehmood reignited their hopes with some big hits, but got outsmarted by Mishra just when he was threatening to run away with the match. David Hussey took over the mantle of scoring runs and kept producing the big shots when it mattered. However, with no other established batsmen available, and 82 needed off six overs, Deccan still looked like comfortable winners.

First Siddharth Chitnis, and then Chawla produced some crucial boundaries to help Hussey get the target to 41 in three overs. Thereafter, the little known Gurkeerat Singh decided to make it his stage, and smashed Christian and Steyn for timely boundaries. With 16 needed off the last Gony over, and then 13 off 4 deliveries, DC were still the front runners. Gurkeerat smashed a short ball over midwicket, followed it with a square drive for a boundary, ran madly for a couple to bring the equation to a single off the last ball. He prompted dispatched the last ball to the fine leg boundary to pull off another heist.

The Chargers keep failing to learn from previous outings, and keep paying for it.