Paul Valthaty would have surprised even himself. First he scored a century against the Chennai Super Kings for the Kings XI Punjab, guiding them to their first win in the competition. 
Then, yesterday in their game against the Deccan Chargers, the Punjab captain Adam Gilchrist threw him the ball, knowing well that if there was one attribute that was probably not lacking in the 27-year old, it was the confidence. And lo and behold, the ball became gold too after his touch. In a spell of four overs, Valthaty captured four wickets to seal the chances of a potentially larger total from Deccan Chargers after they had got to 80 in the first ten overs. 
Then, in their tricky chase of 166, Valthaty delivered with the bat as well. And how.
Opening the innings with Adam Gilchrist, Valthaty was in punishing mood even smacking some of the bowlers in a style reminiscent of the West Indian batsmen in their heydays. One over from Manpreet Gony, who had captured three wickets in his previous game said it all. There was a whacked pull shot that went to the boundary before the next couple were hit over the bowler’s head for a four and a six. The over was then rounded off with a couple of boundaries to ensure that the Kings XI Punjab were in a driver’s seat.
Going for the jugular, even Gilchrist joined in the party, as he clobbered an innings of 61 from 46 balls, even overtaking Valthaty in the quest to get to the 50. Amit Mishra had Gilchrist caught off a short ball and sent him off but by then the Punjab side had got to 136 in the 14th over and the win was not too far away.
Valthaty scored a 47-ball 75 that included eight hits to the fence and five over it and by the time he had become Mishra’s second victim, the Chargers had thrown in the towel.
Punjab got to the total in 17.4 overs and for the loss of two wickets only, to join a long list of other teams who had won two games in the tournament.
Earlier, it was the batting of Kumar Sangakkara and Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the innings that took the score to 88/1 in the 11th over. There was a middle order collapse that left the side struggling on 137/6 but Dan Christian’s 14-ball 30 pushed the side to more than 160. Unfortunately, it did not prove to be enough for the side.