Lakshmipathy Balaji became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when he removed Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla and VRV Singh in successive deliveries. Balaji claimed 5 wickets in the match for just 24 runs. Balaji's performance helped Chennai to defeat Kings XI Punjab by 18 runs at the MA Chidambaram stadium and thus register their sixth win in the IPL. Earlier, batting first Chennai put up a challenging total of 181 runs, thanks to some great hitting by S Badrinath (64 runs off 47 balls) and MS Dhoni (60 runs off 43 balls).

 

The Kings XI, in reply, kept losing wickets at regular intervals and the valiant effort of Irfan Pathan( 40 runs off 18 balls) went in vain as Punjab fell short by 18 runs. Punjab needed 27 runs off the last over and Pathan hit the first ball from Balaji for a six. However, he was caught at deep midwicket of the third ball. Piyush Chawla was the next man to be dismissed when he holed out to Kapugedera at long leg. VRV Singh edged the next ball to Dhoni to give Balaji the first hat-trick of the IPL. With the win Chennai are now placed second in the points table with 12 points from 9 games whereas Punjab are placed third with 10 points from 8 matches.