Page 144 - IPL1

The bowlers worked well together too. The guitar-strumming
Australian speedster Brett Lee, already popular in India after
releasing a hit single that rose to number 2 in the national
charts, opened the bowling in the Punjabis’ first four matches,
taking one for nine in four overs against Mumbai Indians, but
continued to monitor his team’s performance after heading off
to play for Australia in the Caribbean. His mere presence seemed
to galvanise others. Sreesanth was a tireless performer, bowling
in all 15 of his side’s matches and taking 19 wickets, as well as
hitting the headlines for non-cricketing reasons when he was
the recipient of Harbhajan Singh’s now-infamous slap following
Mumbai’s defeat in Mohali on April 25.

The young leg-spinner Piyush Chawla bowled in every game
too for a return of 17 wickets, including a trio of three-wicket
hauls in the victories over Deccan Chargers, Bangalore Royal
Challengers and Rajasthan Royals. But Kings XI’s go-to man

with the ball was the Indian left-arm swinger Irfan Pathan,
who frequently prevented batsmen from freeing their arms
with his miserly line and length. An economy-rate of 6.60 was
outstanding and he also brought 131 runs to the table too with
his uncomplicated brand of left-arm hitting.

If it took the Punjab team a couple of games to gel together and
learn from their errors. They were blown away by a whirlwind
knock from Chennai Super Kings’ Mike Hussey in their first match,
and fared little better two days later against Rajasthan Royals.
But a potentially disastrous start to the IPL was averted with
victory over Mumbai Indians in Mohali, and four straight wins
followed before Chennai, this time inspired by Subramaniam
Badrinath and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, proved too strong once
more. But Kings XI had by now settled on a formula and they
were not about to change plans because of one defeat. The
next four matches were all won to secure a semi-final berth,
and the only surprise was that the Punjabis subsided so meekly
with a place in the final in their sights. What was not surprising
was the identity of their vanquishers: for the third time in the
tournament, Chennai Super Kings proved too strong, limiting
Kings XI to 112 for eight in their 20 overs before knocking off
the runs for the loss of one wickets with 31 balls to spare. If
anything, that result is more likely to inspire Kings XI Punjab to
even greater heights next year.

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