Hyderabad: Shaun Marsh sizzled on his Indian Premier League debut and blasted unbeaten 83 off 62 balls as Kings XI Punjab thumped Deccan Chargers by seven wickets with seven balls to spare to coast to their third win of the tournament here tonight.

Chasing 165,the Punjab side romped home in 18.5 overs losing just three wickets. Marsh, son of former Australian opener Geoff Marsh, was the outstanding performer for the winners with a belligerent half century that included 11 boundaries besides a six off Nuwan Zoysa.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma stood tall amid ruins and hammered an unbeaten 42-ball 76 as Deccan Chargers posted 164 for eight despite a middle and lower order collapse.

Right since winning the toss, the Punjab XI did everything right and were always in firm control of the proceedings.

They began their chase on a positive note with Marsh imposing himself on the Deccan bowlers. Though it was his shot that brushed Sanjay Bangar's fingers before hitting the wicket with non-striker Ramnaresh Sarwan (15) well outside the crease, the youngster made amends by scoring at a brisk rate.

The hosts managed to hit back with D Kalyankrishna removing Kumar Sangakkara (3) and Zoysa taking a catch off his own bowling to scalp Yuvraj Singh ( 14).

Marsh, however, found an able ally in Mahela Jayawardene (45 not out) and the duo milked the Deccan attack with consummate ease to take the match away from the hosts.  

 Powered by Rohit Sharma's half century, Deccan Chargers piled up 163 for eight wickets against Kings XI Punjab in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Thursday night.

Sharma hit 75 off 40 balls after Chargers were reeling at 98 for six. Captain VVS Laxman scored 48 off 34 balls. Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla was the pick of the Kings' XI bowlers, taking three wickets for 28 runs in his four overs. Irfan Pathan (30/2), Sreesanth (33/1) and Gagandeep Singh (37/1) were the other wicket-takers.

Earlier, Kings XI Punjab elected to field against Deccan Chargers.

Deccan Chargers made two changes, bringing in Herschelle Gibbs for Australian Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao for Arjun Yadav. The Kings XI made three changes in their playing eleven. They brought in Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shaun Marsh and Gagandeep Singh.

Teams:

Deccan Chargers: VVS Laxman (Captain), Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Rohit Sharma, Shahid Afridi, Sanjay Bangar, Venugopal Rao, Rudra Pratap Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Doddapanneni Kalyankrishna and Nuwan Zoysa.

Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj Singh (Captain), Karan Goel, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, , Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shaun Marsh, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, S. Sreesanth, Vikram Raj Vir Singh and Gagandeep Singh.

Umpires: Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Russel Tiffin (Zimbabwe).

TV umpire: Steve Davis (Australia).

Match referee: Talat Ali (Pakistan).

Source : IANS