Captaincy is making me angry: Yuvraj

Kings XI Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh was in a relaxed mood after his side's victory over Delhi but that did not stop him from confessing that captaincy has brought the worst out of him as he gets angry easily when his side is not doing well.

"Well, actually it is getting worst out of me. I am getting very angry on the field, I don't know why," Yuvraj said after his side beat Delhi Daredevils by six wickets to keep their semifinal hopes alive.

"But hopefully ... As long as we are winning the games, it doesn't matter what it brings out of the captain, so I am happy," he added.

Yuvraj though could not hide his glee when mentioned about the red-hot form of fit-again Australian Brett Lee whose match-winning 3/15 set up the match for Kings XI against Delhi.

"Lee made a (big difference). Since he came in, we have got better in the bowling department. He obviously brings in a lot of pace and enthusiasm. He has been helping Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth out too, that's very important. So I am glad he is here," the left-hander said.

Having praised Lee, Yuvraj credited the victory against Delhi to team effort. "We had lost three early wickets (in run chase) and we needed one partnership. I took my time, Sanga (Kumar Sangakkara) took his time. And we took up the challenge. We had to play some big shots in the end. Thankfully Irfan (Pathan) came in and got those runs. It was a complete team effort," he said.

Yuvraj was also happy that temperamental pacer S Sreesanth also came good against Delhi after his forgettable show against Deccan Chargers.

"He (Sreesanth) is coming back from an injury. He has had an up and down time but I thought he bowled really well against Delhi. He bowled at his best and is getting better at the end of the day. So hopefully, he will do better in the coming games for us."

Punjab remain in IPL hunt with upset win over Delhi

Kings XI Punjab stunned leaders Delhi Daredevils with a six-wicket victory in their Indian Premier League match here on Friday to keep their semi-finals hopes alive.
After Punjab bowlers had restricted Delhi to 120-9, Kumar Sangakkara hit an unbeaten 43 to guide his side to a thrilling win with five balls to spare.
Punjab nearly made a mess of the chase, losing their top three wickets for 35 runs before Sangakkara put the innings back on track with a 53-run stand for the fourth wicket with Yuvraj Singh.
Yuvraj (18) was dismissed with the side still needing 33 to win from 26 balls but Irfan Pathan kept his cool, hitting three sixes en route his unbeaten 21 to take his team home in their must-win tie.
Erratic Farveez Mahroof, playing his first match of the tournament, took a wicket off his first ball to finish with 2-29 while left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra conceded just six runs off his four overs while picking one wicket.
Delhi, who lead the eight-team tournament, can still make the semis even if they don't win any of their remaining three games.
Delhi have 16 points from 11 matches, followed by Chennai (13/11), Rajasthan (13/12), Deccan (12/11), Bangalore (12/12), Mumbai (11/12), Punjab (12/12) and Kolkata (3/11).
Delhi were off to a poor start with swashbuckling openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag being sent back cheaply inside the first four overs.
Paceman Brett Lee was the most impressive bowler with 3-15 off four overs, for which he was named man of the match, while Pathan and Santhakumaran Shreesanth chipped in with two wickets each.
Dinesh Karthik top-scored with 32 and shared a 50-run stand with Mithun Manhas to lend some respectability to the total.

Chennai prevail in high-scoring affair

Following a thumping win against the Deccans, A confident Chennai captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. The were two changes in the Superkings team - George Bailey and Manpreet Gony replaced Murali Vijay and Jacob Oram. Punjab had one change in their eleven - VRV Singh came in for Ramesh Powar.

Chennai had a change in the batting line-up. With Murali Vijay not playing, Hayden was accompanied by Badrinath at the opening slot. However, the new combination did not work for Chennai when Badrinath tried to upper-cut an Irfan Pathan delivery but was caught by VRV Singh. Raina joined Hayden at number three and the duo started off a show of brilliant stroke-play. Though the conditions were overcast, it did not deter Raina and Hayden, who took an attacking approach and decimated the Punjab bowling. Chennai were 68/1 after 7.3 overs when the rain gods came to the help of Punjab by halting the play.

The play resumed after the rain delay with the match being reduced to 18 overs a side. Punjab got their first break-through after the delay when Raina attempted a pull off Chawla but could only find Goel latch on to a catch. The captain MS Dhoni once again promoted himself and came in at number four. He looked in good touch, timing the ball sweetly. Meanwhile, Matthew Hayden continued from where he left off and went on to score his fifty.

MS Dhoni opened up towards the end of the innings, scoring at an express rate. VRV Singh was at the receiving end when Dhoni scored 24 runs in his over which inculded 2 fours and 2 sixers. Hayden went one step further, scoring 3 sixers off Sreesanth in the penultimate over.

The duo brought on the 100 partnership off just 46 balls. However, Hayden departed in the same over, holing out to Jayawardene at long-in. The hard hitting Hayden managed to score 89 runs off just 58 balls. His innings included 8 fours and 6 sixers. Meanwhile, Dhoni reached his fifty with a four in the last over, taking just 24 balls to get there. Chennai ended the innings with a mammoth score of 185 on board. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 56 off just 27 balls. His innings included 7 fours and 2 sixers.

Punjab started the innings requiring 188 runs to win as per Duckworth and Lewis. Punjab's uphill task started off on a wrong note when Sunny Sohal was bowled by Morkel in the first over. Meanwhile, Simon Katich took charge, scoring at quick rate. Karan Goel gave him good company at the other end, playing for singles and rotating the strike. Simon Katich took the fight back to Chennai scoring 3 consecutive sixers off Gony. Karan Goel tried to emulate Katich by trying to hit Jakati over the top. However, he holed out to Gony at long-on, bringing Yuvraj Singh to the crease. The Kings XI captain started positively, dealing in boundaries and sixers. Not to be left behind, Katich played at a brisk pace and reached his fifty off just 24 balls. Just when things were looking good for Punjab, a loose ball from Balaji resulted in the dismissal of Katich. At this stage Punjab were 84/3 requiring 104 runs off 53 balls.

Yuvraj survived a chance in the 11th over when his attempted shot over long-on, off Muralitharan's bowling was put down by Gony. Meanwhile, an in-form Jayawardene was striking boundaries and sixers at will, taking the attack to his Sri Lankan counterpart, Muralitharan. Yuvraj Singh made Chennai pay for the dropped catch, decimating the Chennai bowling attack. With 3 overs remaining, Punjab required 39 runs to win. Leading from the front, Yuvraj Singh brought up his fifty in just 28 balls.

An exciting finish was in place when Punjab required 30 runs off the last two overs with Yuvraj and Jayawardene putting up the fight. Suresh Raina was given the ball for the penultimate over and he just gave away 6 runs. Punjab required 24 runs off the last over. Balaji, who was chosen to bowl the last over, kept his cool and bowled consistently in the block hole, giving away just 12 runs in the over. In the end, Chennai emerged victors by 12 runs.

In a closely fought encounter, Chennai held their cool and ultimately ended on the winning side thanks to the batting efforts of Hayden, Dhoni and Raina. Punjab gave Chennai a good fight but were not good enough at the end.

Smith boundary blitz steers Rajasthan to IPL win

South Africa skipper Graeme Smith staged a boundary blitz as Rajasthan Royals cruised to a 78-run triumph over Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League Tuesday.
Smith struck 12 boundaries at balmy Kingsmead as he shared a 135-run first wicket partnership with Naman Ojha that set up the defending champions for a fourth win in eight outings.
The Protea made 77 off 44 balls before being caught at the boundary by Piyush Chawla and the 68-run innings of wicketkeeper Ojha included five sixes and five fours.
Royals made 211-4 in 20 overs and while Punjab recovered from a disastrous start in reply to reach 133-8, the outcome was obvious longer before the final ball was bowled.
Rajasthan bettered the previous highest total this season by 22 runs and the Smith-Ojha stand was also a 2009 IPL record as the round-robin phase of the Twenty20 tournament reached the halfway mark.
No Punjab bowler suffered more than Shantha Sreesanth, who bowled two no balls in the penultimate over and conceded 23 runs, including a six from 33-run Ravindra Jadeja.
Punjab made the worst possible start in pursuit of a 10.60-run-an-over target with Sunny Sohal caught by Rajasthan skipper-cum-coach Shane Warne off the first ball of the innings.
Karan Goel contributed just one run before he headed for the pavilion and when Australian Simon Katich departed in the fifth over, Punjab were 25-3 and staring humiliation in the face.
Skipper Yuvraj Singh established some middle-order stability with a 48-run spell at the crease that included three sixes and three fours, but only Irfan Pathan (19 runs) offered support.
Victory lifted Rajasthan from second last to second on the eight-team standings, behind leaders Chennai Super Kings on net run rate, while Punjab slipped from second to sixth.

Jayawardene leads Punjab to last-over IPL win

Mahela Jayawardene struck an unbeaten 52 to guide Kings XI Punjab to a nail-biting six-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League here on Sunday.
The Sri Lankan batsman hit seven fours in his 41-ball knock as Punjab surpassed Kolkata's competitive 153-3 in a last-ball finish at St. George's Park.
Needing seven from the final over by Kolkata paceman Ajit Agarkar, Jayawardene hit a four while Irfan Pathan (19 not out) fetched the winning runs for Punjab.
The victory helped Punjab climb to the second position in the points table while the struggling Kolkata continued to languish at the bottom with their sixth defeat from eight matches.
The Yuvraj Singh-led Punjab have now won four of their seven matches in this Twenty20 competition.
Punjab were off to a disappointing start with Ishant Sharma claiming Kumar Sangakkara for a duck in the first over but a slew of dropped catches and poor fielding did Kolkata no favours.
Simon Katich (34) was dropped on five by Chris Gayle while debutant Sunny Sohal also thrived on a grassed chance to make a fine 26-ball 25 on debut.
Kolkata's innings was built around Brad Hodge who top-scored with an unbeaten 70 off just 43 balls and shared key partnerships with Sourav Ganguly (22) and Morne van Wyk (18 not out).
The Australian smashed 10 fours and a six in a late assault that saw Kolkata put on 101 runs in their last 10 overs.
Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla was the most successful bowler with 2-27 from four overs.

Yuvraj heroics not enough to deny Bangalore

Kings XI Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh took a hat-trick and slammed a half-century but it was not enough to secure a win for his side in their Indian Premier League match against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Kingsmead on Friday.
Instead, feisty South African all-rounder Roelof van der Merwe spurred Bangalore to an eight-run win, hitting 35 off 19 balls, taking two wickets for 22 runs and pulling off a crucial run-out.
Bangalore seemed in desperate trouble at 84 for six after Yuvraj dismissed Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher with successive deliveries.
But Van der Merwe chanced his arm and hit three sixes and three fours to enable Bangalore to reach 145 for nine.
Yuvraj, playing on the ground where he hit six sixes in an over for India against England in the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007, opened the batting with Karan Goel and the pair seemed to have put their side well on the way to victory with an opening stand of 70.
But the game changed dramatically when Anil Kumble had Yuvraj caught in deep in the tenth over. Yuvraj made 50 off 34 balls with four sixes and three fours.
Kumble, captaining the Challengers following the return of Kevin Pietersen to England, admitted afterwards: "Another five overs of Yuvy and the game was probably over."
Van der Merwe dismissed Goel in the next over and then ran out Simon Katich with a superb diving stop and quick throw.
The Kings XI were unable to regain their momentum and their target became almost impossible when Van der Merwe had Mahela Jayawardene caught in the covers, leaving Punjab needing 30 off 17 overs.
Struggling with a wet ball, Van der Merwe's over cost 13 runs including four leg byes and a wide, but Kumble bowled Kumar Sangakarra in the next over and Praveen Kumar killed Punjab's hopes with two wickets in the final over.
"We should have won the game but Bangalore bowled well," said Yuvraj, who was named man of the match despite being on the losing side.

Abdulla clinches Punjab a last-over thriller

Yusuf Abdullah helped Punjab seal the tightest win of the tournament
Kings XI Punjab 119 for 8 (Sangakkara 45*, Malinga 2-12) beat Mumbai Indians 116 for 7 (Duminy 59, Abdulla 2-19) by three runs

Talk about pulling one from out of the hat. Defending a small total Kings XI Punjab's three-pronged pace attack bowled canny spells to rock Mumbai Indians' chase, and despite a composed half-century from JP Duminy, Punjab hung on to complete a nerve-wracking three-run victory. Mumbai hardly set a wrong foot forward from the time they lost the toss, striking early through spin and keeping their hands on the jugular through Lasith Malinga's late strikes, but failed to chase 120. Kumar Sangakkara had kept the innings alive with an important unbeaten 45 with scant support and it proved decisive in the end. Having struck early in the piece the task of bowling the last over, and defend 12 runs, came to Yusuf Abdulla. And what an over it turned out to be.
Duminy, who was on 55, swung two down the ground, missed a clever slower ball, left a wide be, heaved two more, and then swung the fourth ball straight to deep midwicket. Abdulla was perspiring insanely in the Kingsmead cauldron as he left his giddy team-mates and went back to his mark. But this is a left-arm fast bowler adept at the Twenty20 format, and he only allowed three off the next two balls, aided by a superb dive at cover by the portly Ramesh Powar off the last ball to save a couple, to spark incredible scenes.
This major upset was put into motion early in Mumbai's chase. Mumbai are very reliant on their veteran openers, so striking early was one massive way at winning. Irfan Pathan gave Punjab exactly what they wanted, getting Sanath Jayasuriya to nick one to slip in the first over. Then Sachin Tendulkar, for once, failed. After a thick edge past backward point and crude hoick he drove Vikramjeet Malik straight to point. The situation was particularly dubious when a struggling Shikhar Dhawan missed a middle-stump yorker from Abdulla.
That left Duminy and Dwayne Bravo to steer a faltering chase, and Duminy set about it with consecutive boundaries in Malik's second over. Bravo a pulled four and lofted six in Piyush Chawla's opening over only to repeat the big shot in the next and hole out to long-on. Mumbai went into the tactical break on 47 for 4, still 73 adrift.
Duminy has proved a master of such situations and milked the bowling in a 49-run stand with Abhishek Nayar. Livewires alike, they pinched singles and kept runs ticking over. Harried singles from clever paddles and rubber-wrist dabs also did the trick. A few fumbles in the deep told as Punjab started to slack; a couple fortuitous inside edges and a missed run out and stumping compounded their frustration.
As the target got closer Duminy raised his fifty off 55 balls, the slowest of the IPL. Irfan came back to clean up Nayar first ball of the 18th over, with Mumbai needing 26, and Harbhajan Singh fell in the penultimate over with 19 left. Seven runs were scampered in the next five balls. Then Abdullah came into the picture to seal Punjab the tightest win of the tournament.
It was a disappointing loss for Mumbai after a glossy display in the field. For the second game running at Kingsmead spin had its say over proceedings early on. Mumbai's slow bowlers came on well inside the first ten overs and quickly dented Punjab. Malinga and Zaheer Khan were frugal with the new ball, but it was Harbhajan's entry in the fourth over brought the wicket of Goel, stumped easily. That brought about another change, Bravo coming in and immediately accounting for Ravi Bopara with an away-swinger. The Powerplay yielded two wickets for Mumbai and just 26 runs for Punjab, which included one six and a four.
Attempting to up the tempo Yuvraj was well held on the long-on boundary by Zaheer off Duminy - who came in the seventh over - and Mumbai were hooting and screaming. At the ten-over break Punjab were 50 for 3. Throughout the tournament the first over after the tactical break has proved jittery for sides batting first and the pattern continued. Enter Jayasuriya and third ball Mahela Jayawardene chipped a low full toss to long-on.
Batting wasn't easy with the slow bowlers purchasing grip from a track on which spin accounted for eight wickets in the afternoon's game. Sangakkara curbed himself in and knocked the ball around. The sweep was a shot he played regularly in between chopping the ball into the arc between cover and point. After Irfan fell in the 15th over Punjab needed a big over, but it never came. Malinga came back for two overs and nobody was able to get him away; Wilkin Mota and Chawla were yorked in the space of three balls. In the last ten overs Mumbai conceded just two boundaries off the bat, Sangakkara and Powar clubbing Bravo twice in the final over.
Ultimately Sangakkara's vigil and Abdulla's calm came up trumps for Punjab. For Mumbai, it was a rude wake-up call, and they will now seriously have to address a batting order too reliant on the openers.

Punjab blown away by Kolkata Gayle

Chris Gayle hammered an explosive 44 not out to power Kolkata Knight Riders to an 11-run victory over Kings XI Punjab in a rain-hit Indian Premier League match on Tuesday.
The West Indies skipper smashed four sixes in his 26-ball knock as Kolkata raced to 79-1 off 9.2 overs in reply to their opponents' 20-over total of 158-6 when the game was called off due to rain.
Kolkata, who were 11 runs ahead on the Duckworth-Lewis method, posted their first win in two games. Punjab have lost both of their matches.
Left-handed Gayle put his team on course for victory when he put on 57 off just 33 balls for the opening wicket with New Zealander Brendon McCullum, who cracked two sixes in his 16-ball 21.
Punjab paid dearly for letting off Gayle early in the innings, with Karan Goel dropping an easy catch at mid-wicket off South African left-arm seamer Yusuf Abdulla.
Yuvraj Singh and Kumar Sangakkara (26) helped Punjab post a respectable total with a 56-run stand for the fourth wicket after a double-strike from Kolkata seamer Sourav Ganguly.
Skipper Yuvraj, who smashed six sixes in an over at this venue against England in the Twenty20 World Championships in 2007, top-scored with a 28-ball 38 with the help of two sixes.
Former India captain Ganguly ended Punjab's early flourish with two wickets in his opening over, having pinch-hitter Irfan Pathan (32) caught at deep mid-wicket and removing Ravi Bopara (15) caught behind.
Yuvraj and Sangakkara then steadied the innings before Mahela Jayawardene cracked a 19-ball 31 not out to help his team cross the 150-mark.

Vettori shines as Delhi win shortened game

New Zealand left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori took three for 15 as the Delhi Daredevils won a rain-shortened Indian Premier League match against Kings XI Punjab by ten wickets at Newlands Sunday.
Vettori's bowling was mainly responsible for restricting the Kings XI to 104 for seven in 12 overs in an overs-reduced game after rain delayed the start by more than an hour and a half.
Indian opening batsmen Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir made a revised target of 54 in six overs look easy, with Sehwag finishing the match with his fourth six in an innings of 38 not out off 16 balls.
Punjab made a flying start, reaching 67 before losing their first wicket off the last ball of the sixth over when Vettori caught Karan Goel at mid-on of Yo Mahesh.
Goel hit 38 off 21 balls with three fours and three sixes, including a massive hit off Mahesh which sailed out of the ground beyond mid-wicket.
Vettori came on to bowl the next over after the mid-innings break and trapped Ravi Bopara (22) leg before with his first delivery.
The Punjab innings never regained momentum as Vettori took two more wickets in his three-over spell and two run-outs contributed to the collapse.
"I think spinners are going to play a huge part in the tournament," said man of the match Vettori, referring to good performances by Mumbai's Harbhajan Singh, Rajasthan's Shane Warne and Bangalore's Anil Kumble Saturday on the first day of a double header opening weekend.
"Spinners have adapted as quickly as anyone in the Twenty20 game."
Sehwag and Gambhir reached 24 in 1.5 overs before rain halted play. The revised target meant they needed only another 30 runs off 4.1 overs.