Kings XI Punjab coast to easy 7-wicket win over Pune Warriors

A sensational fivefor by Englishman Dimitri Mascarenhas and a measured unbeaten halfcentury by Shaun Marsh helped Kings XI Punjab exact revenge on Pune Warriors on their earlier loss with a sevenwicket win at the PCA stadium in Mohali on Thursday Sent into bat the Warriors were dismissed for a modest 115 in 19 overs courtesy a deadly spell by Mascarenhas who claimed five wickets for 25 and was wellsupported by Harmeet Singh 223 and Piyush Chawla 123 Mascarenhas picked up the wickets of Sourav Ganguly 16 Marlon Samuels 2 Robin Uthappa 17 Mithun Manhas 31 and Rahul Sharma 2 after hosts Punjab won the toss and inserted the visitors The hosts then returned to overhaul the target with 14 balls to spare with Marsh hitting an unbeaten 64 off 54 balls studded with seven fours and one six Skipper Adam Gilchrist 21 and Chawla 21 were the other notable contributors With this win Punjab avenged their first leg defeat to the Warriors at Pune and also spanned their twomatch losing streak where they had also lost to Rajasthan Royals Dimitri Mascarenhas right celebrates the fall of a Pune Warriors wicket with his Kings XI Punjab teammate PicAFPu00a0 Punjab began their run chase on a faulty note when hero of last year39s edition Paul Valthaty was removed of the very first ball by pacer Ashok Dinda who has looked impressive this season After the initial blow skipper Gilchrist along with his Aussie compatriot Marsh who made a comeback in this game after injury tried to steady the innings However Gilchrist fall at the end of eight overs when Anjelo Mathews had him caught by Steven Smith A few overs later spinner Rahul Sharma earned his only scalp with Mandeep Singh 10 falling in the 12th over handing over a catch to Smith 370 After that Marsh along with Chawla ensured their were no more hiccups Luck was also by his side as Marsh got lives with a golden run out chance going abegging by Jesse Ryder when he failed to collect the ball cleanly to dislodge the stumps As Marsh was inching towards halfcentury he was dropped by Dinda off the bowling of Ashish Nehra However the Australian made good use of the chances and saw his team through in the end Earlier there was a hint of movement in the wicket after overnight rains and the hosts made good use of it as they bowled a good line to make life difficult for Pune who had beaten them in their first leg match Pune suffered their first blow when New Zealand39s Jesse Ryder 7 who tried to steal a cheeky single was run out in the third over However it was Mascarenhas who dealt the massive blow when in the sixth over he had Ganguly caught by Marsh of the leading edge The former India skipper39s nineball innings was laced with three fours Mascarenhas then struck again in the same over when he had struggling Samuels bowled out on an incoming delivery Uthappa who looked in good form in the previous two games tried to hold one end as wickets kept tumbling and Pune was tottering at 329 at one stage Mediumpacer Harmeet Bansal who has been bowling intelligently tasted success in his first over when he had Sri Lankan import Angelo Mathews 11 in the ninth over Mascarenhas once again came back to inflict more damage when he had Uthappa 17 caught by Bipul Sharma 577 in the 13th over Middleorder batsman Manhas was the topscorer for Pune and his 28ball innings included three hits to the fence and a six but he also fell to Mascarenhas in the 18th over while trying to play a sweep shot over the short fineleg region In the same over Rahul became Mascarenhas39 fifth victim when he had him caught by Mandeep Singh Ashok Dinda was the last man out when he was found short of wicket in the last ball of the 19th over Leg spinner Piyush Chawla also played his part and picked up a wicket when he cleaned up Steven Smith 13 in the 16th over Manish Pandey 0 offered little resistance giving Harmeet his second wicket For Punjab medium pacers Praveen Kumar and Parvinder Awana also bowled a tight line giving away 19 and 18 runs respectively though both remained wicketless at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium here u00a0