Debutant Marsh, Chawla polish splendid Kings XI victory

The Kings XI Punjab have registered a seven-wicket victory against the Deccan Chargers here at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad tonight. Son of former Aussie great Geoff Marsh, Shaun Marsh made his IPL debut and in magnificent fashion, with an unbeaten knock of 84 to guide the visitors to a convincing win in the end.

The 24-year-old southpaw is a part of Australia's ODI squad for the forthcoming tour of West Indies. This means that he would, like his other teammates, fly back to his country for a camp ahead of the Caribbean tour. He definitely showed glimpses of a future great. He grabbed the Player of the Match award ahead of teammate leg spinner Piyush Chawla who claimed three crucial wickets. The Kings XI Punjab looked a refined unit tonight.

A star-studded Kings XI Punjab batting line-up saw Marsh open the batting alongside Ramnaresh Sarwan (15), followed by Kumar Sangakkara (3), Yuvraj Singh (14) and Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardena (40 not out). It was a rather ineffective bowling performance from RP Singh (0-36), Zoysa (1-32), Afridi (0-28) and Co. who failed to trouble the visiting batsmen in front of a capacity crowd on May Day.

Chasing 165 for victory, the duo of Marsh and Jayawardena added 81 runs for the fourth wicket to steer the Kings XI Punjab home with seven balls to spare. Jayawardena smashed 45 runs from just 23 balls - a knock that included six glorious boundaries and a six. He arrived at the wicket when his team was insecurely positioned after losing skipper Yuvraj (14) to a neat caught and bowled dismissal by Nuwan Zoysa.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma stood tall amid yet another collapse from his team in the tournament, and pounded an unbeaten 42-ball 76 as Deccan Chargers posted a modest total of 164/8 after tottering to 98/6 at one stage. They hammered over 60 runs in the last five overs to keep themselves in the hunt on an evidently placid batting surface.

It was a sloppy show by the Deccan batsmen with only Rohit, skipper VVS Laxman (48) and Shahid Afridi (13) managing double digit scores. Having come to his team's rescue on a few occasions in the tournament already, 21-year-old Rohit smashed ten boundaries and a couple of sixes during his spirited effort. He arrived at the wicket when his team was placed at 54/2 at the end of seven overs.

Put into bat by Yuvraj Singh, the Symonds-less hosts began with a flourish but Irfan Pathan bowled Adam Gilchrist (6) in the fourth over. Herschelle Gibbs' IPL debut was certain to raise the home crowd's hopes but sadly for the Deccan Chargers, Piyush Chawla (3-28) claimed Gibbs (7) caught by Goel in his very first over.

Though Laxman and Sharma showed signs of recovery, Chawla struck again removing the Deccan captain, which left the hosts at 67 for three in nine overs. The much hyped Shahid Afridi (13) arrived at the crease and smashed Gagandeep Singh for a huge six but a rush of blood did him in and off the next delivery, Yuvraj Singh took a skier in his fourth attempt to cut short the Pakistani all-rounder's stay in the middle.

Sharma continued playing his shots but wickets kept tumbling at the other end with Y Venugopal Rao (1), Sanjay Bangar (3), Nuwan Zoysa (1) and D Kalyankrishna (3) failing to make a mark. It came down to Sharma's valiant effort in the end.

The Deccan Chargers will go back to the drawing board and then travel to Bangalore on Saturday to take on the under-pressure Bangalore Royal Challengers at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. On the same day, Kings XI Punjab will host the Kolkata Knight Riders.