Kings XI Punjab produced a fine bowling and fielding performance to beat defending champion the Rajasthan Royals by 27 runs in an Indian Premier League match Sunday at Newlands.
After batting first and scoring 139-6, Punjab's bowlers restricted Rajasthan to 112-7 bowling a full length and swinging the ball sharply.
South African pace bowler Yusuf Abdulla was the pick of the bowlers with 3-21, while allrounder Irfan Pathan and spinner Piyush Chawla both chipped in with two wickets apiece.
Rajasthan were on the backfoot as early as the second over when Swapnil Asnodkar (3) was caught by Ramesh Powar off a delivery from Pathan.
Graeme Smith (2) then edged a swinging Pathan delivery to wickekeeper Kumar Sangakkara to leave Rajasthan on two wickets down with just nine runs on the board.
The only two Rajasthan players to make any real impression with the bat were Ravindra Jadeja, who made 37 off 44 balls before he was bowled by Abdulla, and captain Shane Warne who struck an unbeaten 34.
Warne was clearly unimpressed with his team's effort.
"We haven't found the right combination," Warne said. "the blokes at the top are not doing a good job. We've got to find a solution. The bowlers are not firing."
His opposite number Yuvray Singh praised Sangakkara, who struck 60 _ including seven fours and one six _ and Irfan Pathan, who scored 39 off 33 balls for lifting Punjab to a respectable total.
"We needed a partnership and those two gave us that," he said. "We defended the total nicely too."
Punjab had slumped to 4-48 before Sangakkara and Pathan came to the rescue.
[the article was originally published at http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=931499&lang=eng_news&cate_img=145.jpg&cate_rss=news_Sports]
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