Mohali, May 12: For the better part of the day, rumours flew thick and fast that Rahul Dravid had stepped down as captain and adding grist to the mills was Royal Challengers’ owner Vijay Mallya’s comments on television. It was only when Dravid took his appointed place for the toss that some normalcy was restored. Unfortunately, everything else associated with the Challengers remained a constant too.

The Challengers wallowed in self-pity, unable to even put up a semblance of a fight against Kings XI Punjab as they crashed to their seventh defeat in nine matches. It was not surprising that the locals didn’t turn up in large numbers to watch the game; they had seen and heard enough of the Challengers to give it a miss and Dravid’s men did nothing to restore their poor image on Monday.

Winning the toss was the only thing that Dravid did right as they slipped into their usual routine at the PCA Stadium. Their major area of concern, batting, continued to haunt them and the Challengers just couldn’t break free of the shackles that have enveloped them. Little wonder then, that in nine matches, they have managed to cross the 150-mark only on four occasions.

A poor score of 143/8 in 20 overs was what the Challengers mustered and it soon became a walk in the park for Yuvraj’s band as the in-form Shaun Marsh kept his good run going with an impressive, unbeaten 74 to steer Kings XI to 144/1, a comprehensive nine-wicket victory with more than four overs to spare.

It is as if the Challengers have been hit by a jinx. Dravid has tried every trick in the book and some outside it too, but he seems to run into a brick wall every time. Making first use of the wicket was of no essence as the Challengers lost wickets at repeated intervals and even the promotion of Misbah-ul-Haq to number three didn’t work as he fell in the most unlikely manner.

The Pakistani, who looked good in his brief stay fell to the rarest of dismissals, hit wicket, as he trod on his stumps while attempting to force Sreesanth on the backfoot. If this doesn’t construe a jinx, then what is?

Each time a partnership appeared to be forming, the Mohali team nipped it in the bud as their bowlers came away with miserly spells. Piyush Chawla, who brought off a spectacular caught and bowled chance, running up to mid wicket to get rid off the under-performing Cameron White, was once again very effective, scalping 2/33 while S Sreesanth was his usual busy self, coming away with 3/29 .

With none of the batsmen going on to make an impression it was left to Mark Boucher to once again step up to the plate. Though subdued on this day, the South African’s 39 off 31 deliveries with four boundaries and a six gave them a modest total but it was never going to be enough as Marsh and James Hopes added a brisk 42 for the opening wicket to stifle the Challengers. Though Hopes fell to Vinay Kumar in the seventh over, southpaws Marsh and Luke Pomersbach showed their big-hitting prowess to give Kings XI their sixth victory.