IPL: Valthaty, Chawla shape Punjab victory

DHARAMSHALA, India: Paul Valthaty cracked a brisk 62 and Piyush Chawla bagged three wickets to help Kings XI Punjab score a 29-run win over Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League match on Sunday.

Opener Valthaty added 102 for the second wicket with Australian Shaun Marsh (46) as Punjab made 170-6 before restricting bottom-placed Delhi to 141-8 to keep alive their hopes of making it to the semi-finals.

Leg-spinner Chawla finished with 3-16 off four overs.

Marsh's best came in the 13th over when he hammered left-arm spinner Sridharan Sriram for 24 runs off five balls, including three sixes. He also hit five fours in his 28-ball knock.

Valthaty, who hit Australian paceman James Hopes for 16 runs in an over, smashed three sixes and six fours in his 50-ball knock.

Paceman Irfan Pathan was the most successful bowler with three wickets, including those of Valthaty and Marsh in one over.

Delhi failed to capitalise on a 52-run stand for the opening wicket between Australian David Warner (29) and Naman Ojha (28), losing five wickets in the space of 40 runs.

Seamer Shalabh Srivastava did the early damage when he dismissed both the openers in successive overs while Chawla got two wickets and seamer Valthaty one to reduce Delhi to 92-5.

Bangalore lead the 10-team league table with 17 points, followed by Chennai (16), Mumbai (16), Kolkata (14), Punjab (12), Rajasthan (11), Kochi (10), Pune (eight), Deccan (eight) and Delhi (eight).

Brief scores:
Kings XI Punjab 170-6 in 20 overs (P. Valthaty 62, S. Marsh 46, D. Karthik 27; Irfan Pathan 3-28, A. Salvi 2-40) beat Delhi Daredevils 141-8 in 20 overs (D. Warner 29, N. Ojha 28; P. Chawla 3-16, S. Srivastava 2-39) by 29 runs.