| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
Dharamsala: Staying alive was the theme of Kings XI Punjab on a day when the spot-fixing controversy hit the T20 league big-time.
Playing under the shadow of the sordid disclosures in Delhi, the home team produced a professional display at the HPCA stadium here but still edged out Delhi Daredevils by seven runs and keep their faint hopes of a berth in the playoffs alive.
Put in to bat, KXIP, aided by useful knocks by Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh and David Miller, posted a handy total of 171/4. And with their seam bowlers making better use of the conditions, they throttled the already struggling DD batting line-up to notch up their seventh win. Their chances now rest on Bangalore and Hyderabad losing their remaining games and they themselves defeating Mumbai Indians in their final match here on Saturday afternoon.
The Delhi batsmen continued their miserable run even as they demoted Virender Sehwag to number four. That ploy did not work as Praveen Kumar and Sandeep Sharma made early dents. It put a lot of pressure on Viru who not for them first time failed to deliver.
And with skipper Mahela Jayawardene struggling to collect runs at a fast clip, it was left to Ben Rohrer to give KXIP a fright with a well-struck half-century. But once he fell to Piyush Chawla in the final over it was all over for DD, who are now in danger of finishing last should they lose their final match to Pune Warriors.
Sent in to bat, it was Gilchirst who provided a flying start to KXIP. Gilly likes the ball to come onto the bat and he made full use of the bouncy pitch by collecting five fours and two sixes even though he lived a charmed existence. He and Shaun Marsh put on 60 in 7.3 overs, before Gilchrist was well held by Irfan Pathan off his own bowling. Gilchrist made 42 from 26 balls which set the platform for the likes of Azhar Mahmood and David Miller to launch into a blitzkrieg.
Earlier, Delhi Daredevils have won the toss and elected to field.
Praveen Kumar is back and Manpreet Gony is out.
Delhi have five pacers today. Mahela Jayawardene, Morkel and Gautam are back for Botha, Jadhav and van der Merwe.
Teams:
Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (captain & wk), Shaun Marsh, Mandeep Singh, Azhar Mahmood, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Rajagopal Sathish, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Parvinder Awana, Sandeep Sharma
Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Virender Sehwag, Unmukt Chand, David Warner, Ben Rohrer, Muralidharen Gautam (wk), Irfan Pathan, Morne Morkel, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav, Ashish Nehra
Brief scores
Kings XI Punjab 171 for 4 (Marsh 45, Miller 44*, Gilchrist 42)
Delhi Daredevils 164 for 7 (Rohrer 49, Sandeep 3-23)
Result Kings XI Punjab won by 7 runs
Points Kings XI Punjab 2, Delhi Daredevils 0
MOM David Miller (Kings XI Punjab)
