Bloemfontein, May 15: The glorious uncertainities of a Twenty20 match came to the fore once again as struggling Kings XI Punjab - second from last before this game - upset table-toppers Delhi Daredevils' applecart with a six-wicket victory here on Friday.

The win gave the Kings an outside chance of making the semifinals as it brought them level on 12 points from 12 matches with Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Chasing 121 for victory, Kings had a few hiccups on the way but always kept the chase under control. A couple of early wickets — of Australians Simon Katich (20) and Luke Pomersbach (9) — by Farveez Maharoof gave the Daredevils some hope but their lacklustre fielding let the Kings off the hook.

Daredevils also missed the services of paceman Dirk Nannes, who was replaced by Daniel Vettori in this match. Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara anchored the innings with his fine knock of 43 runs off 47 balls and Irfan Pathan’s big-hitting carried the side home. Pathan remained unbeaten on 21 off 11 balls with three sixes.

Earlier, league-leaders Daredevils were brought back to earth with a bump when they were restricted to just 120/9 in 20 overs after skipper Yuvraj won the toss and decided to field first. Brett Lee stole the show — blowing away the table-toppers — picking up 3/15 in his four overs.

Delhi dropped David Warner for the game in favour of Sri Lankan paceman Maharoof and skipper Virender Sehwag returned to his opening slot. Sehwag’s stay in the middle was once again short-lived as Lee induced an edge to the keeper with the opener on nine runs.

His opening partner Gautam Gambhir departed soon after when Wilkin Mota’s superb throw from backward point caught him short of the crease. It was again left to the Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers to revive the innings but for once they failed to fire.

Struggling paceman S. Sreesanth put away his early IPL-2 woes and followed up Lee’s superb opening burst with the wickets of de Villiers (11) and Dilshan (10) — both failing to clear mid-on. Sreesanth bowled his best spell yet finishing with 2/20 from his four overs.

Mithun Manhas (26, 25b, 2x4s) and Dinesh Karthik (32, 29b, 1x6) tried to rally the Daredevils with a 50-run partnership for the fifth wicket.

Scores: Delhi Daredevils 120/9 (D. Karthik 32, M. Manhas 26; B. Lee 3/15, S. Sreesanth 2/20) lost to Kings XI Punjab 123/4 in 19.1 overs (K. Sangakkara 43 n.o., I. Pathan 21 n.o.; F. Maharoof 2/29).