Valthaty lofts Punjab again to victory

Gilchrist won the toss and took fielding and restricted DC to 165. We have seen chase of 183 yesterday, a successful chase, by Kochi. So 166 is not a great score by any means.

Now Punjab are 96/0, with Valthaty going strong and Gilchrist giving him admirable support. Vlathaty is 45 not out and Gilchrist is 44 not out.

Earlier Paul Valthaty took 4/29, bowling military medium stuff. So he may get Man of the Match Award.

Gilchrist smashes a six to bring up his fifty and Punjab's score crosses 100. They are now 103/0.

The Punjab coach,Michael Bevan said that there is tremendous talent in India. He was commenting on Paul Valthaty's performance.

This is the second time he had done it ! Paul Valthaty, powered Punjab to yet another win with a superb all round performance. He took 4/29 and then scored 75 blistering runs and powered Punjab to victory.

The Deccans, with the best bowling combination in the tournament - Steyn, Sharma, Gony & Mishra, if not Ojha - could do nothing against the onslaught of Valthaty and Gilchrist, who put on 136 runs for the first wicket, when Gilchrist got out for 61. When Valthaty was out, it was 151/2 and the match was more or less over.

For the Deccans, Dhawan scored 45 and Sanga 35. Christian scored 30 off 14 balls, but then 165 proved to be not a defendable score. Not against the in form Valthaty.

The formidable bowling of the Deccans was blunted by the Gilchrist Valthaty duo, whose century partnership, the highest in IPL 2011, brought joy to pretty, pretty Preity !

Punjab has reasons to be proud. Valthaty is a great find and let him prove himself in the matches to come. We hope he plays for India !

Earlier, Christian threatened to take the game away from Punjab, when he clubbed Valthaty for a mighty six, but then Valthaty had his revenge when he clean bowled Christian.

Valthaty, in the same over, sent back Mishra, the leg spinner and took the dream figures of 4/29. He was adjudged the Man of the Match !