Paul Valthaty

Paul Valthaty is a rising star from the home of Indian Cricket Mumbai as he notched up a flamboyant 100 to set up a thrilling win for Kings XI Punjab chasing down 189 against the defending champions Chennai Super Kings.

The Kings XI Punjab got off to the best possible start when veteran bowler Praveen Kumar removed Anirudha Srikanth and Suresh Raina of the first two deliveries of the match and sealed a double wicket over maiden. But the pools of true potential was witnessed when Badrinath was solid with his cricketing shots while on the other hand Vijay played some scintillating strokes to pull his team out of the shell. They picked up singles and doubles here and there and chipped in with the odd boundaries as well. They looked set to explode after they put 67 in the first ten overs. Vijay started to get into the act with a flurry of boundaries and a couple of huge sixes. But he was deceived by the flight of Chawla only for Gilly to stump him. Then came the herculean MSD. He tore apart every bowler, choked Praveen Kumar for 2 consecutive sixes and bringing 22 runs from his over. Badri rotated the strike to the captain as he swept past his 50 which was a trademark of an innings. Dhoni was yorked of the last ball not before he smashed 43 of 20 balls to set a target of 189.

With Gilchrist in your playing eleven you always have a cockamine hope of chasing down any score. But his partner at the other end was the star of the evening. Valthaty was lucky to get away with a dropped chance from Morkel at 10 but then electrified the crowd with exuberant batting strokes.They scored 65 of the power-play with the youngster batting at 45. When Gilly was gone, hopes were gutted but Valthaty sent out a warning that this match was never over. His idea was clear; to score a boundary every over and apply pressure by taking 4 to 5 singles in an over. He played some breath-taking stokes of the front foot and back foot slowly but steadily strangled pressure on the opposition. He was supported very well by Sunny Singh who clinched a six and a couple of 4’s. But when Valthaty hammered 3 consecutive 4’s of Morkel in the 17th over to clinch his maiden 100, Punjab were the favorites to wrap up this match. He finished his innings at 120 not out and this definitely stands out as the best century in the history of IPL.

Tags: Chennai Super Kings, Cricket, CSK, IPL 4, Kings XI Punjab, KXIP, Paul Valthaty