IPL 4 Match 67: Kings XI Punjab Tamed by Deccan Chargers; Lose final IPL 4 Playoff Berth

Shikar Dhawan and Amit Mishra destroyed the Kings XI Punjab's hopes of continuing their dream run into the IPL 4 playoffs and even the blessings of the Dalai Lama did not help at the picturesque Himachal Pradesh cricket association stadium in Dharamsala.

shikar dhawan deccan chargers

The Kings XI Punjab were on a tremendous run. A win in their final match here and the Kings XI Punjab would have been soaring high into the IPL 4 playoffs. Instead they had to settle with consoling themselves for making a comeback and almost destroying the spectacle for teams such as the Mumbai Indians whose scattered wins had put them in jeopardy.

Shikar Dhawan pulverized the hopes of the Kings XI Punjab with a fifty-seven ball ninety-three runs that did not allow the hosts to get any grip on the match. The Deccan Charger were galloping at a consistent ten runs an over right through the innings and it came as no surprise that the Kings XI Punjab were chasing a seemingly impossible 199 runs for victory for a place in the IPL 4 playoffs really.

Dhawan's efforts were matched by the other opener, Ravi Teja who himself made sixty runs from forty-one balls. For the Deccan Chargers, it was a tremendous presence of their skills even though the tournament had slipped through their fingers. It would have been a strange feeling that Adam Gilchrist was facing the team he had captained previously and yet failed to overcome them despite getting them to a tremendous position with his innings from the previous match.

amit mishra hattrick deccan chargers

But Adam Gilchrist, the Kings XI Punjab captain, cannot be faulted for his own efforts, scoring a valiant half century albeit in vain and without the aura of the previous match where it seemed that the Kings XI Punjab were keen to prevail at all costs. Perhaps it was the situation, the imposing target and the pressure in the realization of it that prevented the Kings XI Punjab to bat quite the same way as the last match.

The end was accelerated by Amit Mishra who picked four wickets for the match conceding just nine runs in his four overs, but more so, did it embarrassingly for the Kings XI Punjab by picking up a hat trick of wickets, a IPL 4 hat trick to get on his credit book, to hasten the victory as the Punjab team finished deflated on 116 runs all out, the Deccan Chargers winning by eighty-two runs.