DURBAN:Piyush Chawla stood out of the crowd and put his hand up when it mattered most and ensured that Kings XI Punjab squeezed out a three-run victory over Mumbai Indians in a low-scoring DLF Indian Premier League game on a testing track at Kingsmead here on Wednesday night. Not one fan stirred from the seat in those heady moments.
With Mumbai Indians 19 runs short of the 120-run target, Chawla stepped up to the KXIP acting captain Kumar Sangakkara and volunteered to bowl the penultimate over. "He had the confidence and there was no way I was going to not go with him," Sangakkara said of the little leg-spinner.
Chawla claimed Harbhajan Singh's wicket with the first ball, forcing the Mumbai Indians batsman to drive a catch to long-off and then conceded just seven runs off the next five deliveries to let the cool customer Yusuf Abdulla the cushion of bowling the final over with 12 runs behind him. Like Irfan Pathan before him, the leg-spinner had done his bit for the team.
It was now upto Abdulla to stop Mumbai Indians left-hander JP Duminy, playing the anchoring role, from taking his team to victory. Abdulla frustrated Duminy and got him to strike a catch to the man on the deep mid-wicket fence and KXIP secured their third win in five games to rise to the second place in the table behind Deccan Chargers.
For the second time in the tournament so far, Kings XI Punjab bowlers came out believing that they could defend the small total their batsman had put up. Mumbai Indians needed a good start but were shocked when Sanath Jayasuriya (0) and Sachin Tendulkar (1) were sent to the dug out by Irfan Pathan and Vikramjeet Singh Malik in the opening overs with the new ball.
Boundary hits were at a premium on Wednesday night. Kings XI Punjab struck four fours and two sixes as they mustered 119 for eight in 20 overs, riding on a steady 45 not out by the technically sound Sangakkara. Mumbai Indians managed seven fours and a six, with only Duminy (59), Dwayne Bravo (15) and Abhishek Nayar (15) reaching double figures.
Last week in Cape Town, Kings XI had made 139 for six and then succeeded in restricting Rajasthan Royals to 112 for seven. In the absence of Brett Lee and S Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan and local hero Yusuf Abdulla stepped up the plate and have done brilliantly for the squad. Chawla's keen leg-spin has made the attack a lot more potent than many were ready to concede.
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