In an exciting match at Kimberly, the Kings XI Punjab got the better of the Deccan Chargers by three wickets and with only one ball to spare.
Andrew Symonds had just returned from the UAE where he was involved with the Australian team against Pakistan, and he would have had a fair idea on how to play on pitches which stopped a little onto the batsmen. He was dropped very early by Yuvraj Singh, and after that, in the company of Venugopal Rao, he ensured that the Kings paid for the drop.
On a slow pitch, a quick start was necessary, and that is precisely what they got. 41 were added in a little more than four overs, before a master-move by Gilchrist had Rohit Sharma bowling the fifth over and capturing two wickets; Sunny Sohal and Simon Katich gone in one over.
That did not deter the Punkab team from scoring at the required rate; with both Yuvraj Singh and Kumar Sangakkara hitting out any loose balls. But just like earlier, the tenth over got rid of both the batsmen in the space of three deliveries off S.Shoaib, Punjab 86/4 in ten overs.
Mahela Jayawardene controlled the inning well after the break in the company of Irfan Pathan. A boundary came off almost every over, that disallowed the run-rate from going up, but when Pathan got out, 50 runs were needed off 30! Only five came off the next over which added to the pressure and when Wilkin Mota got out the equation was 41 runs short in 20 balls.
Jayawardene did get out in the next over, but not before he had hit two sixes off two deliveries, that meant that they needed 19 in 12. Brett Lee then hit a six in the 19th over, and Piyush Chawla hit a boundary to bring the target down to three in three, and this was then scored off the penultimate delivery!
Jayawardene was the Man-of-the-Match for his match-winning knock of 43.