Mohali, April 27: The Aussies have been in a league of their own in the ongoing Indian Premier League with unmatched power-hitting and a great sense of occasion. Sunday was the turn of Simon Katich to come to the party.

Katich’s blistering 52-ball 75 (11x4, 1x6) and Yuvraj’s cameo (40, 29; 3x4, 2x6) propelled Kings XI to their second consecutive victory at home, thrashing Delhi Daredevils by four wickets at the PCA Stadium here on Sunday. Chasing Delhi’s 158/8, the hosts replied with 162/6 thanks to the Aussie southpaw’s assault. Katich, who came into the side as a last-minute replacement for James Hopes, was particularly severe on Mohammed Asif who gave away 32 runs in his four overs. He smashed three consecutive fours off the bowler in the fourth over as he raced to 50 in just 32 balls.

The skipper took charge after the Aussie’s dismissal, ensuring the hosts did not have last-minute problems during the chase handing the Daredevils, arguably the strongest contenders of the title, their first defeat of the tournament.

The victory, though, had been set up by the home team’s bowlers and followed a mediocre performance by the Delhi batsmen. Electing to bat, Delhi didn’t have the brightest of starts and it only worsened as the game progressed. The pitch had a tinge of grass on it and the home team’s pace attack made full use of it early on, troubling the visitors’ top order to no end.

Sehwag had only an uppercut to show for his effort, departing for six off as many balls to Pathan who got the ball to jag back in and hit the batsmen’s pads dead in front of stumps. Lee, playing in his last game in IPL, mixed bouncers and yorkers with remarkable efficiency and removed Shikhar Dhawan in the third over.

Gautam Gambhir tried to counterpunch, with two boundaries each off Pathan and V.R.V Singh in consecutive overs pushing the Daredevils run-rate. His counter-attack, though, did not last long, and his wild slog ended in the hands of mid-on.

Dardevils’ middle-order, hitherto untested, came into the action by the end of sixth over with the score at 3/45. Manoj Tewari kept his end safe, running hard for singles and getting the odd boundaries, but a flurry of wickets owing to reckless hits meant the visitors had already lost the plot. From 88/5 in 10 overs, Delhi could only manage 70 off the final 10 for the loss of five wickets.

VRV was the pick of the bowlers, getting two key wickets in his first spell and then coming back to nip Tewari’s 39-run resistance in his final spell. He finished with figures of 3/29 off his four overs. The pace duo of Lee and Pathan too were on top of their game, continuing their fine performance from Friday night. The only aspect missing from Kings XI performance was Sreesanth’s show.

At the centre of the ‘slap’ controversy, he went for 25 runs off his two overs and was promptly taken off the attack by the skipper.