Gambhir's captain knock helped Delhi cross the line

Gautam Gambhir (72 off 53) guided Delhi Daredevils to a thrilling victory over Kings XI Punjab by six wickets in the IPL-3 encounter at PCA Stadium, Mohali.


Earlier, Ravi Bopara waged a lone battle as his 48-ball 56 helped Kings XI Punjab gather 142 for nine against Delhi Daredevils.

Bopara, who struck seven fours and a six, joined hands with Irfan Pathan (21) to pull the Punjab side out of the pit when they were struggling at 44 for four after 6.1 overs at the PCA Stadium.

Besides the duo, only two other batsmen -- Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara (17) and S Sreesanth (15) -- could manage to get a double-digit as the Punjab team kept losing wickets in regular intervals.

For Delhi, pacer Dirk Nannes and his new-ball partner Farveez Maharoof scalped two wickets apiece, giving away 12 and 37 runs, respectively.

Earlier put in to bat first, Punjab suffered an early loss when opener Manvinder Bisla (2) was found off the crease by Mithun Manhas in the second over of the game.

Captain Sangakkara then tried to give the team recovery with Bopara, but the Sri Lankan was removed by Maharoof in the sixth over and then the bowler struck again in the same over by dismissing attacking left-hander Yuvraj Singh (4) cheaply.

Mahela Jayawardene (0) also failed to live up to the expectation of the team and fell to Delhi paceman Pradeep Sangwan in his first ball.

Irfan, who hit two fours during his 16-ball stay, then paired up with Bopara in the middle and added 60 runs before the former was removed by Tillakaratne Dilshan in the 14th over.

The Punjab innings dealt a major blow when Yo Mahesh dismissed Bopara in the 16th over with Manhas pouching a well-judged catch.

After Bopara's departure, other Punjab batsmen, including Mohammad Kaif (6), Piyush Chawla (5) failed to build any resistance to the Delhi bowling attack as the run-rate never improved thereafter.

Besides Nannes and Maharoof, Sangwan (1/32), Amit Mishra (1/23), Mahesh (1/23) and Dilshan (1/7) bagged one wicket each to ensure the opponent batsmen never enjoy their stay at the crease.

To the end, Sreesanth's 14-ball 15, which he made with the help of two fours, powered the Punjab team to cross the 140-run mark.



 Delhi Daredevils Innings

Batsman Delhi Daredevils(146/5 in 19.5 ovs) Runs Balls 4's 6's SR G Gambhir(c) c M Jayawardene & b I Pathan 72 54 9 1 133.33 V Sehwag c M Jayawardene & b Sreesanth 8 6 2 0 133.33 T Dilshan c M Bisla & b Sreesanth 0 3 0 0 0 AB De Villiers runout (P Chawla) 7 13 0 0 53.85 D Karthik(wk) c I Pathan & b Y Abdulla 20 18 3 0 111.11 M Manhas Not out 31 24 2 0 129.17 F Maharoof Not out 1 1 0 0 100 A Mishra dnb 0 0 0 0 0.00 P Sangwan dnb 0 0 0 0 0.00 D Nannes dnb 0 0 0 0 0.00 Extras b - 0, lb - 5, w - 2, nb - 0, Total - 7 Total:(146 for 5 in 19.5 overs)   146 Run Rate: 7.36 Fall Of Wickets 1/10 (Virender Sehwag, 1.2 ov.), 2/10 (Tillakaratne Dilshan, 1.5 ov.), 3/45 (AB de Villiers, 7.3 ov.), 4/79 (Dinesh Karthik, 12.2 ov.), 5/140 (Gautam Gambhir, 19.2 ov.) Bowler 0 M R W Nb Wd ER Irfan Pathan 3.5 0 27 1 0 2 7.05 Sreesanth 4 0 24 2 0 0 6 Yusuf Abdulla 4 0 30 1 0 0 7.5 Piyush Chawla 4 0 33 0 0 0 8.25 Yuvraj Singh 3 0 11 0 0 0 3.67 Ramesh Powar 1 0 16 0 0 0 16 Kings XI Punjab Innings Go to Top Batsman Kings XI Punjab(142/9 in 20 ovs) Runs Balls 4's 6's SR R Bopara c M Manhas & b Yo Mahesh 56 48 7 1 116.67 M Bisla runout (M Manhas) 2 6 0 0 33.33 K Sangakkara(c) c P Sangwan & b F Maharoof 17 9 1 1 188.89 Y Singh c G Gambhir & b F Maharoof 4 5 1 0 80 M Jayawardene c D Karthik & b P Sangwan 0 1 0 0 0 I Pathan st D Karthik & b T Dilshan 21 16 2 0 131.25 M Kaif st D Karthik & b A Mishra 6 6 1 0 100 P Chawla c F Maharoof & b D Nannes 5 7 0 0 71.43 R Powar b D Nannes 3 7 0 0 42.86 Sreesanth Not out 15 14 2 0 107.14 Y Abdulla Not out 0 1 0 0 0 Extras b - 0, lb - 8, w - 5, nb - 0, Total - 13

Total:(142 for 9 in 20 overs)   142 Run Rate: 7.1

Fall Of Wickets 1/5 (Manvinder Bisla, 1.2 ov.), 2/39 (Kumar Sangakkara, 5.1 ov.), 3/44 (Yuvraj Singh, 5.6 ov.), 4/44 (Mahela Jayawardene, 6.1 ov.), 5/104 (Irfan Pathan, 13.2 ov.), 6/113 (Mohammad Kaif, 14.5 ov.), 7/113 (Ravi Bopara, 15.2 ov.), 8/116 (Ramesh Powar, 16.3 ov.), 9/132 (Piyush Chawla, 18.6 ov.)

Bowler 0 M R W Nb Wd ER Dirk Nannes 4 0 12 2 0 2 3 Farveez Maharoof 4 0 37 2 0 2 9.25 Pradeep Sangwan 4 0 32 1 0 0 8 Amit Mishra 4 0 23 1 0 0 5.75 Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh 3 0 23 1 0 1 7.67 Tillakaratne Dilshan 1 0 7 1 0 0 7

Umpires: Billy Doctrove (WI) & S Ravi (Ind)

Third Umpire: S K Tarapore (Ind)

Match Referee: S Venkatraghavan (Ind)