Punjab beats Delhi by 6 wickets in IPL

Kumar Sangakkara hit 43 not out and Brett Lee took three wickets on Friday to guide Kings XI Punjab to a six-wicket win over the Delhi Daredevils and revive its hopes of reaching the semifinals of the Indian Premier League.

After Lee claimed 3-15 in four overs - including a wicket-maiden - to help restrict the Delhi Daredevils to 120-9, Sangakkara put on an unbeaten stand of 35 with Irfan Pathan (21 off 11 balls with three sixes) to steer Punjab to victory with five balls remaining.

"The wicket was not easy to bat on under lights. The ball stopped a bit, swung a bit," said Sangakkara, adding of Pathan that "he is the guy who actually won it for us. I just wanted to bat through and was hoping that someone supported me."

Punjab is in sixth place in the standings with 12 points, four behind leader Delhi.

Lee, who is playing in his first series since injuring his foot during Australia's second Test against South Africa late last year, was well backed up by seamers S.Sreesanth (2-20) and Pathan (2-22).

"Lee was fantastic," Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh said. "He's also been helping Sree and Irfan a lot with their bowling. It's been great in the bowling department."

Delhi tried hard to defend its total, with opening bowler Ashish Nehra taking 1-6 from four overs, including a wicket-maiden.

Punjab opener Simon Katich was out after scoring 20 of the team's 22 runs, nicking a ball in the fourth over to wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik off fast bowler Farveez Maharoof, who ended with 2-29 on his tournament debut.

Sunny Sohal moved too far across the stumps to be bowled by Nehra in the fifth over to make it 35-2.

With no runs added to the total, Luke Pomersbach was caught by a diving A.B de Villiers in the slips for 9.

Singh added 18 before being caught by Virender Sehwag at backward point off a wide, short-ball from Pradeep Sangwan.

Earlier, Delhi lost its first wicket on 19 in the third over when captain Virender Sehwag on 9 gloved a quicker, shorter ball from Lee to Sangakkara.

Next over with one run added to the total, Gautam Gambhir was run out for 8 by Lee Pomersbach's throw to Wilkin Mota.

De Villiers missed a pull on 10 and hit straight to Yuvraj at midwicket off Sreesanth to leave Delhi on 46-3 in the eighth over.

Five runs later, Tillakaratne Dilshan attempted to go over the top only to be caught by Singh at mid-on from Sreesanth's bowling.

Manhas was caught by Sohal off Mota with the score on 101. Three runs later, Lee uprooted Maharoof's middle stump.

Daniel Vettori scored 1 before he was caught by Sohal after looking to pull Pathan, and Delhi was 111-7. Rajat Bhatia was caught for 0 next ball by Piyush Chawla in the deep off a short-pitched delivery from Lee.

Karthik departed in the final over, caught on the boundary by Mota off Pathan's bowling.