Half-centuries from Yuvraj Singh and Mayank Agarwal led Delhi Daredevils to a five-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab, thereby breaking their run of 11 successive defeats. Yuvraj and Agarwal put on 106 off 66 deliveries for the third wicket before departing off successive balls in the 19th over. There was time for Daredevils to stutter as Kedar Jadhav also fell but Angelo Mathews drove Axar Patel down the ground to bring up the win off the penultimate ball.

Kings XI had a decent base at 104 for 1 in the 14th over after choosing to bat, but lost six wickets in their last 6.1 overs to the Daredevils spinners to end with a slightly underwhelming 165.

Opener Agarwal played a calculated innings of 68 from 48. He started with a few boundaries and settled down to keep knocking singles before going after Mitchell Johnson in the 15th over when the asking-rate was approaching 11. The first ball of the over was guided between point and third man for four. Agarwal, on 42, gave a difficult chance to sweeper cover off the second delivery, but Sandeep Sharma lost the ball as he dived. The fourth was sliced to the third man boundary for four more and the fifth was pulled behind square for six.

Johnson, who went for 43 from four overs, suffered at the hands of Yuvraj too. Yuvraj, who made 55 from 39, tucked a short ball fine for four to get going, and also eased Johnson down the ground for four. He was tentative and late on a few deliveries initially but grew in confidence as his innings progressed. After Agarwal attacked Johnson, Yuvraj swung three sixes in four balls from Axar Patel and Anureet Singh to shut the door on Kings XI.

Although they lost only M Vijay till they went past 100, Kings XI did not quite dominate. Virender Sehwag hit a few eye-catching boundaries but he also struggled to connect on several occasions. He was especially uncomfortable against the pace and bounce of Nathan Coulter-Nile at the start.

Sehwag and Wriddhiman Saha added 71 for the second wicket in 8.5 overs before the latter fell for 39 off 28 to a yorker from Amit Mishra. Saha's fall heralded a phase where Kings XI lost four wickets in four overs. Sehwag had hung in to make 47 off 41 but holed out off the last ball of the 15th trying to hit another six off JP Duminy.

The Daredevils captain had brought himself on as soon as the left-hand David Miller came in, and bowled his fellow South African on the pull in the 17th. Glenn Maxwell hit two sixes but lasted only five balls, mishitting one off Imran Tahir.

The Kings XI innings ended with the departure off George Bailey and Axar off the last two balls. All those strikes meant the momentum was with Daredevils, and Agarwal and Yuvraj ensured they built on it to give them their first win since the UAE leg of IPL 2014.
(espncricinfo)