Punjab thrash Kochi by six wickets

Punjab thrive on Dinesh Karthik's heroics to down Kochi by 6 wickets

Punjab thrash Kochi by six wickets

Punjab thrive on Dinesh Karthik's heroics to down Kochi by 6 wickets

Dinesh Karthik smashed five sixes in his 33-ball 69 to power Kings XI Punjab to a six-wicket victory over Kochi Tuskers Kerala in an Indian Premier League match yesterday. He put on 111 for the third wicket with Australian Shaun Marsh (42) as Punjab surpassed Kochi's total of 178-7 with seven balls to spare for their fifth win in 11 games of the Twenty20 tournament.

Right: Kings XI Punjab's Dinesh Karthik drives during yesterday's IPL
match against Kochi Tuskers Kerala in Indore. Pic/AFP

Punjab were struggling at 31-2 after paceman Rudra Pratap Singh dismissed skipper Adam Gilchrist (nine) and Paul Valthaty (17), but Karthik and Marsh shattered Kochi's hopes with their big-hitting. Karthik, who reached his half-century with a six over mid-wicket off spinner Ravindra Jadeja, also hit seven fours while Marsh cracked two sixes and five fours in his 30-ball knock.

Singh got his third wicket when he removed Karthik, superbly caught by skipper Mahela Jayawardene in the covers, before holding a return catch to dismiss Marsh in the space of three runs. Australian David Hussey (21 not out) finished the match with a straight six off paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. Chennai and Mumbai have already made sure of the semi-finals with 16 points each. They are followed by Bangalore (15), Kolkata (14), Rajasthan (11), Punjab (10), Kochi (10), Pune (eight), Delhi (eight) and Deccan (six).

Sri Lankan Jayawardene earlier hit two sixes and eight fours in his 52-ball 76 to help Kochi post a challenging total. He added 93 for the opening wicket with New Zealander Brendon McCullum, who hit a 27-ball 32. Jayawardene, who reached his half-century with a six off leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, was run out in the last over. Owais Shah was the other main scorer with a 12-ball 23.

Scoreboard
Kochi Tuskers Kerala
B McCullum lbw b B Sharma 32
M Jayawardene run out 76
R Jadeja lbw b Chawla 17
B Hodge c Marsh b B Sharma 4
O Shah run out 23
P Patel c Karthik b Srivastava 0 R Gomez lbw b Harris 2
Vinay Kumar not out 1.
Extras: (Lb4, W19) 23.
Total: (for seven wickets in 20 overs) 178.
Fall of wickets: 1-93, 2-122, 3-129, 4-165, 5-165, 6-177, 7-178.
Bowling:
Ryan Harris 4-0-42-1,
Bhargav Bhatt 4-0-36-0,
Bipul Sharma 4-0-32-2, Shalabh Srivastava 4-0-34-1, Piyush Chawla 4-0-30-1.

Kings XI Punjab
A Gilchrist c Patel b Singh 9
P Valthaty b Singh 17
S Marsh c & b Singh 42
D Karthik c Jayawardene b Singh 69
D Hussey not out 21
Mandeep Singh not out 15. Extras: (Lb2, W6) 8.
Total: (for four wickets in 18.5 overs) 181.
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-31, 3-142, 4-145.
Bowling:
RP Singh 4-0-25-4,
S Sreesanth 3.5-0-38-0,
Vinay Kumar 3-0-28-0,
Brad Hodge 2-0-26-0,
P Parameswaran 2-0-23-0, Raiphi Gomez 1-0-12-0,
Ravindra Jadeja 3-0-27-0.
Result: Kings XI Punjab won by 6 wickets
Man of the Match: Dinesh Karthik