DHARAMSALA, May 21 (PTI): Leg spinner Amit Mishra recorded the first hat-trick of the season as Deccan Chargers crushed Kings XI Punjab by 82 runs to dash their hopes of making the Indian Premier League play-offs here today.
Chasing 199 to win, Punjab only managed to score 116 all out in 19 overs at the pictersque HPCA stadium with captain Adam Gilchrist being the top scorer with 51.
Brought back into the attack in the 16th over, Mishra removed Ryan McLaren, Mandeep Singh and Ryan Harris off successive deliveries to record his second hat-trick in the history of the Twenty20 tournament.
Mishra has now joined Yuvraj Singh as the only player in the IPL to have recorded two hat-tricks.
Apart from these two players, Kolkata Knight Riders� Lakshmipathy Balaji, Chennai Super Kings� Makhaya Ntini and Mumbai Indians� Rohit Sharma had achieved the feat in the previous editions of the event.
After the Deccans rode on Shikhar Dhawan�s unbeaten 95 and Ravi Teja�s 60 to post an imposing 198 for two, Mishra took the centrestage to return with superb figures of 4-1-9-4 and spin his team to victory.
Punjab�s defeat means that Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight riders now confirm berths in the play-offs.
Mishra bowled a googly to McLaren, who tried to clear the fence but in the end only found Daniel Christian latching on to the ball at deep midwicket to complete a good low catch.
Mandeep Singh was stumped by Kedar Devdhar in his bid to accelerate the scoring.
SCORECARD
Deccan Chargers: S Dhawan not out 95, DB Ravi Teja c Nayar b Valthaty 60, JP Duminy c Marsh b Harris 12, CL White not out 15. Extras: (LB-8, W-8) 16. Total: (For 2 wickets in 20 overs) 198. Fall of wickets: 1-131, 2-158. Bowling: P Kumar 3-0-26-0, RJ Harris 4-0-35-1, BA Bhatt 3-0-33-0, PP Chawla 4-0-48-0, PC Valthaty 4-0-24-1, R McLaren 2-0-24-0.
Kings XI Punjab: Paul Valthaty c Anand Rajan b Steyn 5, Adam Gilchrist c White b Christian 51, Shaun Marsh c Anand Rajan b Duminy 13, Dinesh Karthik c Ravi Teja b Christian 11, Ryan McLaren c Christian b Mishra 9, Abhishek Nayar c Christian b Ojha 3, Mandeep Singh st Devdhar b Mishra 7, Piyush Chawla not out 13, Ryan Harris c Dhawan b Mishra 0, Praveen Kumar b Mishra 0, Bhargav Bhatt run out (Anand Rajan) 0. Extras: (LB 2, W 2) 4. Total: (all out in 19 overs) 116. Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-22, 3-83, 4-84, 5-91, 6-102, 7-102, 8-102, 9-104, 10-116. Bowling: J P Duminy 4-0-23-1, Dale Steyn 3-0-13-1, Anand Rajan 2-0-23-0, Pragyan Ojha 3-0-25-1, Daniel Christian 3-0-21-2, Amit Mishra 4-1-9-4.
