Valthaty pulls Punjab to victory !

With his two balls, Praveen Kumar took 2 wickets, trapping Aniruddha Srikanth for a duck and then forcing Raina to lobby it to a fielder. A two wicket maiden !

Then Murali Vijay and Badrinath took the Chennai to score 124, a century partnership of 124, when Vijay was out for 74, with six fours and four sixes. Then Dhoni hit two sixes in a blistering 43. Badrinath remained not out with 66.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man and the man of the hour was Paul Valthaty. In a swashbuckling innings of 120 not out off just 63, Valthaty lofted Punjab to victory. With Gilchrist, he put on 61. Stuart Marsh was out when the score was 100. Then Sunny Singh, after some lusty blows got out for 20, when the score was 136/3. Valthaty dominated the hapless Chennai bowlers and pulled, hooked and cut them with ease. As long as he was there, it was Punjab, Punjab all the way. Dhoni could not do anything but watch helplessly. A catch was let go by Dhoni !

Tim Southee then trapped Abhishek Nayar lbw for a duck and Punjab were 136/4 ! Then Dinesh Karthik joined Valthaty. Valthaty continued to impress and became the fourth player in the IPL to score a hundred, after M Pandey, M Vijay and Y Pathan !

Then D Karthik played a cameo and when 2 were needed to win, he lofted one into the stands for six and the match was over ! Punjab won by six wickets.