Deccan succumb to Mandeep, Hussey

Deccan Chargers dropped only one sitter today. Their fielding did not come apart as it has earlier this season. Mandeep Singh did cart their bowling around in a dominating innings. But then, in the middle of their chase, they lost Cameron White and Daniel Harris in the space of four balls. To David Hussey. Four deliveries later, they lost Kumar Sangakkara. Game over.

The result, and Rajasthan Royals' win over Pune Warriors earlier today, opened up a five-way race for two playoff spots, with Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils appearing set to take the first two spots.

Chargers had kept pace with the asking-rate for eight overs. Parvinder Awana and Azhar Mahmood then got in a tight over each. With the spinners having been taken for runs, and the fast bowlers pulling things back, few would have expected Hussey to come on with his part-time quick offbreaks in the 11th over. He did, and Harris, on 30, drove his first delivery off a thick edge straight to point. As if one pleasant surprise wasn't enough, a bigger gift was in store for Kings XI. Hussey gave rare flight to his fourth ball, White went after it, and Shaun Marsh accepted the steepler at deep midwicket.

Double whammy turned into triple tragedy for Chargers when Sangakkara edged a peach of an away-moving Praveen Kumar delivery for the wicketkeeper Nitin Saini to take a reflex one-handed catch wide to his left. A competitive 70 for 2 had sunk to 74 for 5, and Chargers had as much hope left of winning the game as they have of making the playoffs.

Mandeep, Kings XI's highest run-getter this season, had earlier continued his good form, adding powerful strokes to his solidity to take his side well over the 150-160 mark which Sangakkara said was a par score. Mandeep, with a career Twenty20 strike-rate of barely 120, batted a couple of gears higher today, his 75 coming off 48 deliveries. David Miller provided the late boost, hammering an unbeaten 28 off 18.

Mandeep, who had been consistent this season without dominating, never looked back after taking Veer Pratap Singh for 18 in the second over. He pulled, cut and lofted over extra cover without any desperation. Though he lacked enough support, Mandeep never allowed the innings to flag.

Ashish Reddy could have had Mandeep, on 30 then, off the first ball he bowled, but could not get to a tough chance which just eluded his outstretched left hand. Mandeep deposited the last ball of that Reddy over, the seventh, over long-on.

Veer Pratap, who was to go for 45 in four overs, managed to get Hussey mishitting to long-off in the 12th over. Mandeep responded by pulling Amit Mishra for consecutive fours in the next over.

Reddy finally bowled Mandeep in the 16th over as the batsman missed a slog. He then ran-out the dangerous Azhar Mahmood for 14 with sharp fielding at point, but became too predictable with his slower deliveries, allowing Miller to take 13 off the final over.

Almost predictably, Chargers' woeful catching made another appearance, though late, when White put down Miller at long-off last ball of the 19th over. But for once, Chargers had neither their fielding nor their catching to blame for their 16th loss in 17 games at their home ground in Hyderabad.

Innings Dot balls 4s 6s Powerplay (0-6) 16-20 overs NB/Wides Kings XI Punjab 46 17 5 51-0 35-1 0/5 Deccan Chargers 49 10 4 40-2 35-3 0/7

Deccan bat, Clarke debuts in IPL

Deccan Chargers' Kumar Sangakkara returned to the side as captain after sitting out the last game and he opted to bat first against the only team they've beaten so far in this edition.

The big inclusion for the Pune Warriors was Michael Clarke, flying in from the West Indies after the Test series and replacing Jesse Ryder. After keeping out of the IPL in the previous four seasons, Clarke made his first appearance in the league. He also hasn't played a Twenty20 game since October 2010. Wayne Parnell, the allrounder, came in place of Alfonso Thomas.

The Chargers made a couple of changes. Sangakkara came in place of the struggling allrounder Daniel Christian while the Orissa batsman Biplab Samantray replaced Bharat Chipli.

Deccan Chargers: 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt), 4 Cameron White, 5 JP Duminy, 6 Biplab Samantray, 7 Ankit Sharma, 8 Ashish Reddy, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Veer Pratap Singh

Pune Warriors: 1 Manish Pandey, 2 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 3 Michael Clarke, 4 Robin Uthappa (wk), 5 Marlon Samuels, 6 Steve Smith, 7 Mithun Manhas, 8 Wayne Parnell, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Ashish Nehra

De Villiers, Dilshan sink Rajasthan

Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers helped Royal Challengers Bangalore overcome a major disruption to their plans and secure their fourth win of the season, bringing them level on points with the other top sides in the league. After Chris Gayle fell sick minutes before the match began and did not open, Royal Challengers stagnated, scoring only 67 for 3 by the 12th over, before de Villiers initiated the recovery during an aggressive partnership with Dilshan.

After Gayle's dismissal for 4 - lbw to Brag Hogg's quicker ball - de Villiers and Dilshan blitzed 122 in 8.2 overs, as the ball flew to and over the boundary through a combination of inventive and orthodox shots. De Villiers launched five sixes, hitting 59 off 23 balls, while Dilshan, who had scored only 38 off his first 39 balls, ended on 76 off 58 deliveries. They powered Royal Challengers to 189, a total that seemed a pipe dream earlier.

During Royals' chase, Rahul Dravid played an innings similar to what Dilshan had done for Royal Challengers. Dravid opened and scored steadily at one end, motoring to a half-century, while his partners struggled at the other. The asking-rate was rising rapidly, though, and left-arm spinner KP Appanna, who was brought in for this game, broke Royals' chase. He dismissed the top four Royals batsmen, beginning with the in-form Ajinkya Rahane and Owais Shah, to finish with 4 for 19. While Dravid did a Dilshan, no one did a de Villiers for Royals, and the upshot was a 46-run defeat.

The impact de Villiers had on the match was immediate. After taking a three off his first ball, he began the acceleration by hoisting offspinner Ajit Chandila for consecutive sixes over midwicket in the 13th over. They were the first sixes of Royal Challengers' innings. Though the next two overs had only a boundary each in them, de Villiers and Dilshan ran aggressively to increase the run flow. Dilshan then broke free in the 16th over, lofting Siddharth Trivedi over the long-off boundary and pulling him for four through square leg.

Hogg, who had troubled the earlier batsmen with his left-arm wrist spin, lost his line and length and was punished for consecutive boundaries by Dilshan. Even Kevon Cooper, who bowled economically in his first two overs, suffered towards the end, de Villiers carting him over the straight boundary before fishing out the reverse paddle through fine leg.

The penultimate over was the innings' most expensive - 21 runs came off it. After four quiet deliveries, one of which was a no-ball, de Villiers laid into Trivedi and hit the last three balls for two sixes and a four. Dilshan added the finishing touches by hitting the final two balls, from Cooper, to the fine leg and point boundary.

For Royals to challenge 189, they needed Rahane and Shah to fire. But only Dravid did. Rahane scratched around for 13 off 17 balls before swatting Appanna to long-on, where Luke Pomersbach, substituting for Gayle, took a well-judged catch running to his right. Appanna and Harshal Patel strung a few economical overs together between the sixth and tenth, which forced the asking-rate towards 13.

Shah eventually hit the innings' first six in the 11th over, whipping Patel over backward square leg, but was beaten by flight and turn from Appanna and stumped in the 12th. Dravid too lost his fluency after that, struggling to attack the left-arm spin, and his dismissal, holing out to extra cover, ended the Royals' challenge.

Deccan Chargers limited to 126

or the briefest of periods, Deccan Chargers looked like posting a total that might give them a fair chance of earning their first win of this IPL season. And then, even though wickets did not fall in a heap, their innings stuttered as the scoring rate began to splutter. The odd boundary would be followed by periods of low productivity, depriving Chargers of any momentum whatsoever. The upshot was a modest target, making Kolkata Knight Riders favourites to earn their fourth win of the tournament.

The start in Cuttack was delayed by a little more than an hour because of rain, but no overs were lost. Before the interruption, however, both captains had got what they wanted at the toss, with Kumar Sangakkara saying he would have batted after Gautam Gambhir chose to bowl. Sangakkara did not go on to have a good day, losing his middle stump to L Balaji after a scratchy 12 off 15 balls.

Shikhar Dhawan, on the other hand, was spunky at the start. In the third over, he heaved Yusuf Pathan, who had opened the bowling with his offspin, over wide long-on for six and chipped over mid-on for four. Little did Chargers know at the time that it would be the innings' only six, until Dale Steyn hit one in the 20th over. Dhawan also pulled Brett Lee and drove him powerfully for four, gathering five boundaries in his first 22 balls. Little did Dhawan know he would not hit another one in his next 28 deliveries.

Chargers had made 30 for 0 after four overs when the slowdown began, with Sunil Narine and L Balaji operating with discipline for Knight Riders. Soon after Chargers would hit a boundary, Knight Riders would regain ground by string together several economical deliveries. As a result, the batsmen were unable to put the bowlers under consistent pressure - there were no consecutive boundaries through the entire innings.

After Sangakkara fell, Dhawan and Parthiv Patel batted for 5.4 overs without dominating the bowling. Parthiv was eventually run out in the 12th over, but even Cameron White, who replaced Daniel Christian for this game, could not improve Chargers' situation. He fell slogging Lee to deep square leg as Chargers got stuck deeper in the mire. Lee's last two overs, the 15th and 17th, yielded only four runs.

Dhawan had anchored the innings but he too was going nowhere, and his struggle ended when he mis-hit a full toss from Rajat Bhatia to deep midwicket. He was gone for a run-a-ball 50. He would say later that the pitch was hard to bat on.

Despite the slow run-rate Chargers had lost only two wickets in 14 overs, which meant JP Duminy came in only in the 15th, when White fell. He too could not find fluency, and neither could any of the other lower-order batsmen. Balaji and Narine picked up two wickets apiece during economical spells as Chargers were limited to 126 for 7.

Ryder and Ganguly script Pune victory

Pune Warriors 192 for 3 (Ryder 86, Ganguly 41) beat Delhi Daredevils 172 for 7 (Sehwag 57, Thomas 3-22, Ganguly 2-27) by 20 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Pune Warriors recovered from two successive defeats to beat the form team this IPL thus far, thanks to an impressive all-round effort. Sourav Ganguly, their captain, played a significant role with bat and ball, together with some exciting shot-making from Jesse Ryder and Steven Smith, who helped post a total that proved beyond the might of Delhi Daredevils' power-packed batting line-up. At the Ferozshah Kotla, the hosts were well on track when Virender Sehwag and Kevin Pietersen were going strong in a threatening partnership but the chase ran out of steam when a couple of bowling changes proved decisive by accounting for both.

Daredevils were up against the Warriors' highest total of the season and needed a blistering start, but were hit with the early loss of Mahela Jayawardene. That brought two of their most destructive batsmen together, and the tempo of the innings from there on was a contrast to a sedate first four overs bowled by Alfonso Thomas and Ashish Nehra. Murali Kartik came on in the fifth, and Sehwag charged out to launch him for a straight six followed by a cut through point. Pietersen looked in command, targeting Angelo Mathews in the next over, slapping him disdainfully for a straight six then carving him over extra cover and long-on to make it three in four balls.

Sehwag then took over, gradually building the pressure on his Warriors counterpart by making a mockery of each of his bowling changes. Ryder was carted for consecutive sixes over extra cover and Rahul Sharma was blasted into the second tier. The pair had added 81 in five overs, the bowling changes had failed and the Warriors captain tried another option, bringing himself on.

Pietersen had made up his mind and swung hard but Ganguly's first ball kept low, beat the bat and hit the stumps, prompting wild celebrations. An animated Ganguly sprinted across the field, his hair clinging for dear life onto his head, as the importance of that wicket began to sink in. In his next over, he was struck over midwicket for six by Irfan Pathan but had his man when an attempt at a similar shot produced a catch in the deep. Daredevils were still in the game with Sehwag batting, but Ganguly's decision to bring back Kartik paid off. Kartik tossed it up, bowled it slow, Sehwag struck one straight back at him and the bowler kept his cool to pluck a decisive catch.

Ross Taylor struggled to get going in the company of a relatively inexperienced lower middle order, and his run-out, in a Ganguly over, virtually shut Daredevils out of the game. Nehra and Thomas returned to complete what was, in the end, a comfortable win.

The highlights of the Warriors innings were a 93-run stand between Ryder and Ganguly, who laid the platform with some exciting shot-making, and late onslaught from Smith. Ryder and Ganguly threw Sehwag's plans off track by going after the most successful bowler this IPL season, Morne Morkel, and forced some debatable bowling changes that helped the batsmen settle in further. Eager to open up after a quiet start, Ryder targeted Morkel and was lucky, his first two boundaries - a six over third man and then a four past fine leg - coming off edges.

The approach unsettled Morkel , who Ryder struck - convincingly this time - for two more fours, before he was taken off the attack, having conceded 31 in two overs. Sehwag had the option of using Yadav then, or left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, who replaced Ajit Agarkar for this match. Instead, he had a bowl himself and was swept for fours by Ryder and Ganguly, before Pietersen was smashed over extra cover and long-off for a four and a six respectively. Twenty-six came off overs eight and nine and the pair was well prepared by the time the regulars returned.

Both faltered in their running, failing to convert several singles into twos, but the boundaries compensated for that lethargy. Ganguly scooped Nadeem over short fine before hammering him down the ground, and Ryder stepped up when he was joined by Smith once Ganguly went. He cracked Irfan over extra cover and swung Yadav over square leg and midwicket for sixes.

As the seamers struggled with their lengths, either bowling too short or on a length, the otherwise miserly Nadeem too came in for some punishment. Smith launched him for sixes over his head and midwicket, and dispatched him for two fours, one off a reverse-sweep, to pick 23 in the 18th over. Sixty-seven came off the last five, giving Warriors an excellent shot at getting their campaign back on track. They did so, with their captain leading the way.

Innings Break

Innings Break

Rajasthan 146/4 (20.0 Ovs) Brad Hodge* 3 (5)	Chennai Doug Bollinger* 4-0-31-1 Nuwan Kulasekara 4-0-17-1
CRR 7.30   Last Wkt Owais Shah 52(43)

Last 4 overs
Runs	30
Wickets	2
Fours	1
Sixes	2

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Malinga injury blow for Mumbai Indians

Back spasms have forced Lasith Malinga, the Mumbai Indians fast bowler, to return to Sri Lanka for treatment, and he could miss up to two weeks of the IPL as a result. Malinga last played for Mumbai Indians against Rajasthan Royals on April 11 and missed the match against Delhi Daredevils on April 16.

"He is undergoing treatment [in Sri Lanka]," Nishantha Ranatunga, the secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket, told ESPNcricinfo. However, Ranatunga was not certain how long Malinga would be out and said the fast bowler would have to be evaluated by the Sri Lanka team's physio before any return date could be determined.

Malinga has reportedly not been training since the game against Royals and flew back to Sri Lanka on the morning of April 16. The team spokesperson said that Malinga "required rest and it made sense to send him back home", but they were hopeful he would return in a few days.

The loss of Malinga weakens the attack of Mumbai Indians, who have made an inconsistent start to the tournament and currently sit in sixth place in the points table, having won three of their five games. Malinga is the leading wicket-taker in the IPL and has been in good form again this season, taking nine wickets from four games at an economy-rate of 4.54.

Injuries have been a problem for Malinga in recent years. A knee injury he picked up during Sri Lanka's Australia tour in 2007 threatened to cut short his career and in April, 2011, he retired from Tests in order to spare his knee further damage.