Jayawardene hits out for win

Mahela Jayawardene's six off the final ball earned the Kings XI Punjab a six-run victory over the Delhi Daredevils in a rain-affected Indian Premier League match on Saturday.

The Sri Lankan pulled a long hop high over deep mid-wicket from the last ball to take his side to 3-94 after the Duckworth-Lewis method reduced the target to 89.

Delhi, who won the toss and chose to bat, posted 4-118 from 11 overs with Virender Sehwag smashing an unbeaten 51 off 26 balls.

Punjab in reply made good headway with Yuvraj Singh powering 23 runs off eight balls. Yuvraj hit Glenn McGrath for two consecutive sixes but was then caught on the boundary by Farveez Maharoof with the Australian's next ball in the third over.

James Hopes (four) followed three balls later having been caught by Shoaib Malik on the long-on boundary off the bowling of Amit Mishra but Jayawardene entered the fray and hit Sehwag for 13 from four balls in his first over.

Luke Pomersbach (25 not out) helped maintain the momentum at the other end, launching Maharoof and Bajat Bhatia for maximums in back-to-back overs.

Jayawardene then completed the seventh over with a six, which secured the win before the covers were brought on yet again.

Earlier, Delhi made a flying start, partly thanks to some erratic bowling from Sreesanth, with Sehwag launching a six over the third man boundary in the first over.

They were lucky not to lose Sehwag in the third over, however, when he tried to launch one over Sreesanth's head, but the ball took the edge and ballooned towards mid-off, where Yuvraj spilled a sitter.

Fellow opener Gautam Gambhir was soon racking up the runs with regular boundaries off Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan.

A change of bowler made little difference to the Kings, with Sehwag smashing Vikram Singh for two consecutive sixes and a four in the sixth over.

The Kings finally made the breakthrough in the next over when Gambhir's 28-ball innings was brought to a halt by a peach of a ball from Ramesh Powar which took out middle stump.

The momentum remained with Delhi despite the loss of Gambhir as Sehwag dished out some slogging treatment to spinner Piyush Chawla, but the match was then interrupted by rain.

Shikhar Dhawan added eight after the break before skying a Powar delivery to Chawla at extra cover but Sehwag soon after reached 50 with a single off Vikram Singh.

Punjab took two wickets in the 11th and final over with Tillakaratne Dilshan (eight) and Maharoof (nought) both caught at mid-wicket off Hopes.

The Daredevils were disappointed to have their innings cut short, having raced to 4-118 by just past the halfway stage, which ultimately was not enough to prevent a Punjab victory.

Delhi Daredevils innings
Gambhir b Powar 40 (28)
Sehwag not out 51 (26)
Dhawan c Chawla b Powar 8 (5)
Dilshan c Pomersbach b Hopes 8 (6)
Maharoof c Powar b Hopes 0 (1)
Malik not out 1 (1)
Extras 10 (lb2, w7, nb1)
Total 118 (for 4 wkts, 11 overs)

FoW: 1-75, 2-104, 3-115, 4-116

Bowling
Sreesanth 3-0-33-0 (4w)
Pathan 2-0-13-0
Singh 2-0-33-0 (1nb)
Powar 2-0-22-2 (2w)
Chawla 1-0-13-0
Hopes 1-0-2-2

Kings XI Punjab innings
Marsh c Dhawan b Sangwan 2 (5)
Hopes c Malike b Mishra 4 (6)
Yuvraj c Maharoof b McGrath 23 (8)
Jayawardene not out 36 (17)
Pomersbach not out 25 (12)
Extras 4 (lb2, w2)
Total 94 (for 3 wkts, 8 overs)

FoW: 1-3, 2-30, 3-31.

Bowling
McGrath 2-0-18-1
Sangwan 1-0-12-1 (1w)
Mishra 2-0-21-1
Sehwag 1-0-22-0 (1w)
Maharoof 1-0-11-0
Bhatia 1-0-8-0