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Cape Town: Yuvraj's Kings XI Punjab beat last year champion Rajasthan Royals by 27 runs to win the 15th match of the second edition of the Indian Premier League at Newlands in Cape Town on Sunday (April 26).
Punjab bowled superbly to defend a low score of 139 and restricted Rajasthan to 112 for seven in 20 overs to register their second victory of the tournament.
Kumar Sangakkara 60 (51b, 7x4, 1x6) was declared man of the match.
Yusuf Abdulla took 3 wickets while Irfan Pathan and Piyush Chawla took two wickets each to rattle Rajasthan for whom Ravindra Jadeja 37 (44b, 3x4) and captain Shane Warne not out 34 (33b, 3x4) waged an unsuccessful battle.
Rajasthan lost their seventh wicket when Jadeja was clean bowled by a yorker from Abdulla.
Rajasthan Royals were tottering at 48/6 in 10 overs.
Pathan dismissed Swapnil Asnodkar (3) on his first delivery by having him caught at mid-on by Ramesh Powar. On the penultimate delivery of that very over Pathan dismissed Graeme Smith (2) with a gem of a delivery that was pitched up and swung away, taking the edge for Kumar Sangakkara to takes an easy catch.
Abdulla then struck twice in three deliveries to reduce Rajasthan to 27 for four. Abdulla first had Rob Quiney (7) caught down the leg side by Sangakkara and two balls later, got the ball to come in to rattle the off-stump of Dimitri Mascarenhas (4).
Chawla had the dangerous Yusuf Pathan (10) caught by Karan Goel at short fine leg and in his next over had Abhishek Raut (1) caught at long off by Ramesh Powar.
Earlier, Punjab struggled after early losses and it was left to Kumar Sangakkara to weigh in with his first half-century of the tournament and the star of the day, Irfan Pathan, to provide the momentum for a fightback.
Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara was the only bright spot in the Punjab innings top scoring with a 51-ball 60 that was studded with a six and 7 fours before he was run out in the penultimate over of the innings.
It was Sangakkara's partnership with Irfan Pathan of 75 runs for the 5th wicket that gave some respectability to the Punjab total.
Pathan hit 2 sixes and 2 fours in his 39-run knock that came off 33 balls before he inside edged a Kamran Khan delivery onto his stumps.
Brief Score: Kings XI Punjab 139/6 (Sangakkara 60, Irfan 39) beat Rajasthan Royals 112/7 (Jadeja 37, Abdulla 3-21, Irfan 2-26) by 27 runs.
