Kings XI Punjab canter to fifth win

Kings XI Punjab won their fifth consecutive game outplaying the Bangalore Royal Challengers with both bat and ball. Put in to bat on a seaming wicket, the Bangalore Royal Challengers offered meek resistance with their Captain Rahul Dravid playing a lone hand with a gritty 66 run knock.

The importance of Dravid's knock in his teams total of 126 is exemplified when one looks at the sorry scorecard of the Challengers which had five batsmen out for ducks and only two other batsmen crossing over to double figures.

Both the seamers in the Kings XI Punjab played their part, with Sreesanth picking up the opener Jaffer and then Cameroon White, while Irfan picked up the important wicket of the Indian under-19 captain Virat Kohli. Piyush Chawla then accounted for the likes of Misbah Ul Haq, Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan to restrict the Bangalore Royal Challengers to a paltry 126. Their fifth consecutive victory moves the Kings XI Punjab into the second position in the league table.



Orange Cap Standings



With Yuvraj Singh not troubling the scorers much today, the Orange Cap standing remained the same. Delhi Daredevils Captain and opening batsmen Virender Sehwag held on to the prestigious "Orange Cap" as the highest cumulative runscorer in the League with a total of 247 runs. Rohit Sharma of the Deccan Chargers was second with a cumulative total to 235 runs. Sehwag’s compatriot and opening bat Gautam Gambhir also retained his third position with a cumulative total of 225 runs.

Ishant Sharma penalised for abusing ground equipment

The DLF Indian Premier League, announced that it had fined the Kolkata Knight Riders pace sensation Ishant Sharma 10 per cent of his match fees for abusing ground equipment.

Clive Lloyd, the match referee hauled up the India and Kolkata Knight Riders paceman under level 1…. 1.2 offence as per the ICC's Code of Conduct. This was after Ishant Sharma kicked down the stumps in the game between Punjab Kings XI and the Kolkata Knight Riders at Mohali on 3rd May 2008.

The DLF Indian Premier League is being played as per the ICC Playing Conditions and Rules and is set to follow the guidelines in letter and in spirit.

Punjab Kings XI, Bangalore win in IPL

Punjab Kings XI defeated Kolkata Knight Riders for their fourth successive victory in the DLF Indian Premier League but remained unchanged at the fourth spot in the points table after their game on Day 16 of the competition on Saturday.

The Knight Riders fell short by nine runs as they reached 169 for six while chasing the Punjab Kings XI's total of 178 for six in 20 overs.

In the day's first match, Bangalore Royal Challengers defeated the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers by three runs. With four points from six matches and two wins, the Bangalore team moved up to the sixth rung on the points' table.