Kings XI Punjab 4-171 (Shaun Marsh 45, David Miller 44*, Adam Gilchrist 44, Ashish Nehra 2-38) beat Delhi Daredevils 7-164 (Ben Rohrer 49, Mahela Jayawardene 39, Sandeep Sharma 3-23) by seven runs.

A combined teamwork by Kings XI Punjab injected another defeat to the low profiled Delhi Daredevils who kept on sliding towards the bottom in the IPL 2013.

Kings XI Punjab amassed 171 runs after losing just four wickets and Delhi Daredevils managed 164 with three wickets intact at the close of the required overs.

David Miller (Kings XI Punjab) was announced ‘Player of the match’ for his aggressive unbeaten knock of 44 off 24 deliveries.

The 67^th match of the Indian Premier League was played on Thursday, May 16, 2013, at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala.

Mahela Jayawardene won the toss for Delhi Daredevils and sent the opposition into bat first. The captain of Kings XI Punjab, Adam Gilchrist, along with Shaun Marsh took off smartly by scoring 34 runs in the first four overs with 4 boundaries from each batsman. Gilchrist added 17 runs in the sixth over with 2 lofty sixes and 1 four and the duo flew to 60 in 7.3 while scoring at will. Adam Gilchrist was caught and bowled by Irfan Pathan for 42 off 26 with 2 sixes and 5 fours and was replaced by Azhar Mahmood. The second wicket took the score to 86 in 11.3 overs as Azhar Mahmood was caught brilliantly by Siddarth Kaul off Ashish Nehra for 9.

David Miller came in next and continued enhancing the score with Marsh as the score crossed the hundred runs mark in the 15^th over. They accumulated 16 runs in the next over with 1 six and 2 fours when Shaun Marsh was caught by Irfan Pathan at long-on at the bowling of Morne Morkel for 45 off 44 with 7 fours. Rajagopal Sathish took guards next and hit a six on the third ball he faced as Miller punished Kaul for 2 sixes and 1 four in the 18^th over. The 19^th over resulted in 17 runs and Sathish was caught by Ben Rohrer off Nehra for 22. David Miller remained unbeaten for 44 from just 24 balls with 4 towering sixes and 3 fours as Kings XI Punjab punched 171 with six wickets remaining in 20 overs.

Delhi Daredevils had an awful start while losing their three top order batsmen for 12 mere runs in four overs. Unmukt Chand, Irfan Pathan and David Warner were sent back to the dressing room for 7, 1, and 0 runs respectively. The experienced Virender Sehwag joined in with his skipper, Mahela Jayawardene, they tried to stabilise the innings and the first hit 3 fours in the coming overs. Sehwag gathered another 9 runs with a couple of fours in the 10^th over but was gone for 30 off 22 with 6 fours at 61 in 10.4 overs.

Ben Rohrer got together with Jayawardene who hit 1 six and 3 fours in the following overs whereas Rohrer picked three boundaries as well. They reached 111 in 16.1 overs as Mahela Jayawardene became the next victim for 39 off 42 deliveries with 1 six and 3 fours. The game was still on as Muralidharen Gautam reached the center while Rohrer was doing fine at his end. The pair hit 1 six and 2 fours until the 18^th over as Rohrer dispatched 2 consecutive sixes and 1 four in the 19^th over while they required 22 runs to win from the last six balls. Ben Rohrer was clean bowled by Piyush Chawla for 49 off just 29 with 3 mighty sixes and 4 fours on the first ball of the final over. Morne Morkel lost his wicket after hitting 2 sixes and Gautam scored 12 as Delhi Daredevils reached 7-164 after consuming 20 overs.

Sandeep Sharma was the star performer with three wickets, Piyush Chawla held two whereas Praveen Kumar and Parvinder Awana shared one wicket each.

Kings XI Punjab won the interesting battle with a small margin of seven runs but strengthened their overall position on the chart.

The present standing of the two teams in the tournament is as follows:

Kings XI Punjab – 12 points from 15 games – 6^th position.

Delhi Daredevils – 6 points from 15 games – 8^th position.