Amit Mishra's mesmerising bowling spell and a mountain of pressure on skipper Adam Gilchrist to single-handedly take his team to the playoffs was the undoing of Kings XI Punjab as they slumped to a 82-run defeat in the IPL-4 match here on Saturday.
Earlier, opener Shikhar Dhawan smashed a blistering unbeaten 95 and added 131-run for the first wicket with Dwarka Ravi Teja to guide Deccan Chargers to a mammoth 198 for two against Kings XI Punjab.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan smashed a blistering unbeaten 95 and added 131-run for the first wicket with Dwarka Ravi Teja to guide Deccan Chargers to a mammoth 198 for two against Kings XI Punjab in their Indian Premier League match at HPCA stadium, here today.
Dhawan's whirlwind knock, his highest score in IPL, came off just 57 balls and was adorned with one six and 14 fours. He was well-supported by opener Ravi Teja (60, 41 balls, 5x4, 2x6) as they added the 131 runs in only 13.2 overs to lay the foundation for an imposing total.
The partnership was the highest for Chargers this IPL season for any wicket. The Deccan 's downfall this season can be attributed to their poor show with the bat. Such has been their plight that the previous best this season was 92-run stand between Kumar Sangakkara and Sunny Sohal for the second wicket.
Chargers got off to a solid start with Teja and Dhawan adding 58 runs in the first six overs, much to the delight of stand-in skipper Cameron White, who is donning the captain's hat in the absence of regular skipper Sangakkara. Teja cashed in on three dropped chances to notch up his highest-ever IPL score.
In the first over, Praveen got the ball to straighten outside off from short of length and Teja top-edged the pull just over square-leg but Paul Valthaty made a real mess of it as he failed to latch onto the ball.
In the ninth over, Piyush Chawla gave Teja his second successive reprieve, dropping him off his own bowling. The opener went down the track and drilled it hard to left of Chawla who went with both hands but it burst through his palms.
In the 12th over, Teja was dropped by Ryan Harris off Valthaty at mid-on. Punjab, for the first four overs managed to keep the Deccan openers quiet with occassional boundaries, but Dhawan broke the deadlock in the fifth over bowled by Praveen to hit him for successive boundaries.
Dhawan then hit Harris for couple of fours in the next over to take the team's total past 50-run mark. Teja soon followed suit and hit leg-spinner Chawla for two boundaries in his first over to put Chargers on top before the first strategic time out in their last league game of the season 4.
Both the openers were on song and reduced Punjab bowlers to mere pedestrians with their brutal hitting. Teja was more attacking of the two as he hit Ryan McLaren for three fours in the 11th over to bring up the 100 for the Chargers. In the 13th over, he hit Chawla for two consecutive sixes and a four to bring his 50.
