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New Delhi: Despite hiccups in mid overs, Kings XI Punjab achieved the meagre 121 target with three overs to spare at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Tuesday.
The Daredevils' planning was awry right from the selection of the side on a slow-turning track. The decision to drop left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem was proved to be a poor one as tweakers from both sides prospered on the Kotla track.
Kings XI always had the match in control once they restricted the Daredevils to 120/7. The chase had its wobbles at 50/3 and then 70/4 but for the Delhi bowlers the total was too meagre to defend.
The Daredevils have now been condemned to their seventh loss in eight games with only a mathematical chance left of qualifying for the later stages.
In-form Mandeep Singh blasted 24 off 15 balls with five boundaries to ease the task for the visitors. It was left to the two Davids — Miller (34 n.o., 39b, 3x4) and Hussey (20, 21b, 1x4, 1x6) — to complete the formalities.
The latter fell with the target in touching distance but the result was inevitable. Earlier, logical thinking took a back seat - like it has for most of this season - as the Delhi Daredevils batsmen threw their wickets away even as David Warner (40, 36b, 4x4, 1x6) waged a lone furrow.
Australian Warner, demoted to No. 4 in the batting order, was the only one who put up a semblance of a fight as Daredevils posted 120 for seven after Kings XI sent them in.
The woeful display started right at the start with skipper Mahela Jayawardene walking back with merely four on the board. His partner, Virender Sehwag (23, 21b, 2x4, 1x6) looked in good touch although nowhere near the destructive mood he was in on Sunday against Mumbai.
The move to send South African Roelof van der Merwe (8) at No. 3 came a cropper as he found the slow nature of the Kotla track hard to handle. The military-medium pace of Harmeet Singh (3/24) did most of the damage for Kings XI.
His biggest scalp was Sehwag, who spooned a catch to Mandeep Singh at covers. Manprit Juneja (14) and Kedar Jadhav (0) were his other two victims even as Warner watched the procession from the other end.
The Australian opener didn't find any support from the middle-order as Delhi collapsed to 89/6 by the 15th over.
Earlier, Kings XI Punjab have won the toss and elected to field.
Adam Gilchrist keeps his place. Three changes for Kings XI - Luke Pomersbach in for Azhar Mahmood, Harmeet Singh and Bhargav Bhatt come in for Manpreet Gony and Gurkeerat Singh
Three changes for Delhi Daredevils as well. Andre Russell goes out for Johan Botha, Nadeem out, Nehra in, Venugopal Rao out, Juneja in
Teams:
Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Virender Sehwag, David Warner, Manprit Juneja, Kedar Jadhav (wk), Johan Botha, Roelof van der Merwe, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Ashish Nehra, Umesh Yadav
Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (captain & wk), Mandeep Singh, Manan Vohra, Luke Pomersbach, David Hussey, David Miller, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Harmeet Singh, Bhargav Bhatt, Parvinder Awana
Brief scores
Delhi Daredevils 120 for 7 (Warner 40, Harmeet 3-24)
Kings XI Punjab 121 for 5 (Miller 34*)
Result Kings XI Punjab won by 5 wickets
Points Kings XI Punjab 2, Delhi Daredevils 0
MOM Harmeet Singh (Kings XI Punjab)
