World Of Sports

Shaun Marsh hit 74 not out to guide Kings XI Punjab to a comfortable nine-wicket victory over the Bangalore Royal Challengers on Monday.

The Australian had the highest batting average in the IPL before the clash and he cemented his position as the competition's best batsman with another swashbuckling performance in Mohali.

He smashed nine fours and two sixes to lead the Kings to 144 for one in reply to Bangalore's 143, and clinched the win with a single to cover off Praveen Kumar with more than four overs to spare.

He was assisted by countrymen James Hopes and Luke Pomersbach, whose 34 off 24 balls helped easily chase down a meagre target.

The Kings made a slow start but Hopes was soon racking up the runs, matching the power of three sixes with the finesse of a number of clever singles.

He made 27 off 19 balls before going for one slog too many off Vinay Kumar and was caught by Dale Steyn at deep extra cover.

Marsh was dropped by substitute fielder Bharat Chipli at mid-on in the fifth over as the Challengers again showed lacklustre fielding, and they were made to pay as the batsman went on to produce another sublime showing.

In the 10th over he powered Steyn for three fours and a six, and dished out similar treatment to Zaheer Khan, hitting the Indian paceman for three successive fours to bring his side to within three runs of their target.

A single from Pomersbach and two more from Marsh in the next over condemned Bangalore to yet another defeat.

Earlier the Challengers had won the toss and elected to bat, but struggled from the start and amassed just five runs from two overs when the in-form Sreesanth made the breakthrough in the third.

He lured Jagadeesh Arunkumar (one) into a attempted cut at a wide delivery which flew to Mahela Jayawardene in the slips.

Misbah-ul-Haq (21) and Virat Kohli (21) accelerated the run rate with two consecutive fours each and the former then hit Sreesanth for six over long-off and for four with an exquisite square drive in the same over.

Misbah's form was not to last, though, and he played back too far and trod on his stumps two balls later.

Kohli hit back-to-back fours off Piyush Chawla in the sixth over but was then fooled by a low delivery which skidded on to his off stump.

Rahul Dravid helped guide the Challengers to 74 for three at the halfway stage but in the 11th over Cameron White (10) tried to launch Chawla over deep mid-wicket but mis-timed the shot and was superbly caught by the back-peddling bowler.

Bangalore, who have struggled in the competition so far and have only won twice, were dealt a blow when Dravid was bowled by Irfan Pathan but Mark Boucher attempted to rack up the runs in the last few overs with a huge six off Hopes.

Two fours off the same over followed for Boucher but his partners continued to tumble, with Praveen Kumar (five) and Vinay Kumar (one) bowled by Sreesanth and Vikram Singh respectively.