Rohit Sharma hit 32 runs off two overs...The Deccan Chargers, who are out of the tournament, were in no mood to roll over and play dead for the Kings XI Punjab, who are in to the semi-finals, and put on a positive batting display on the back of half-centuries from Adam Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma.
Put in to bat, Deccan's openers took advantage of Punjab's non-threatening opening bowlers and added 79 in 11.1 overs.
Gilchrist and Gibbs went after the bad balls early in the innings. When VRV Singh bowled full and wide, Gilchrist drove him for fours through extra cover and mid-off. Gibbs, who looked uncomfortable against Sreesanth's swinging deliveries, attacked successive balls drifting on to his pads by flicking through midwicket and nudging past fine leg off. He rounded off the third over - that went for 12 runs - with a perfectly timed drive through extra cover.
The two were cautious when the spinners came on - in the sixth over - and scored only six runs off 12 balls. But a restless Gibbs then decided to turn on the aggression by stepping out and slogging Ramesh Powar for six over midwicket and then lifting Piyush Chawla for two sixes over long-on. Gilchrist, who was troubled by Chawla's googlies, attacked Yuvraj Singh - going inside-out over mid-on for a six. Both were bowled going for big across-the-line hits - Gibbs trying to slog Gagandeep Singh and Gilchrist in sweeping Powar.
Deccan were aided by some shoddy work by the Punjab fielders. Powar fumbled in his dive and allowed a Gilchrist shot to go over the line, while Sreesanth gave away runs with mis-fields at third man and fine leg. Then there was VRV who only half-heartedly tried to go for a catch at long-off to dismiss Rohit Sharma.
That dropped catch proved costly for Punjab as Rohit hit 32 runs off two overs soon after - Gagandeep bore the brunt off it as Rohit hit two sixes and a four off the bowler and got to his fifty off 26 balls. But with his wicket- in the next over - Deccan lost some steam and the last three overs got them only 32 more runs.
Deccan will do well to remember that in the last match between the two sides, they had set Punjab 164, which Punjab chased comfortably, losing only three wickets.
Though this match doesn't hold any significance in the tournament, Punjab will want to retain their winning momentum going in to the semis.
Kings XI Punjab: 1 Shaun Marsh, 2 Luke Pomersbach, 3 Yuvraj Singh (capt), 4 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 5 Mahela Jayawardene 6 Tanmay Srivastava, 7 Ramesh Powar, 8 Gagandeep Singh, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Sreesanth, 11 VRV Singh.
Deccan Chargers: 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt & wk), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Rohit Sharma, 4 Chamara Silva, 5 Venugopal Rao, 6 D Ravi Teja, 7 Sanjay Bangar, 8 Scott Styris, 9 RP Singh, 10 Pragyan Ojha, 11 P Vijaykumar.
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