Bangalore, October 18: Bangalore were knocked out of their semi-final bid when Cobras outclassed Victoria earlier in the day. RCB then turned the tables on Delhi by defeating them by 8 wickets, knocking the Daredevils out of the semi-final reckoning.
Birthday Boy Kumble did the damage with the ball with his spell of 3/20. Ross Taylor then came up with an explosive innings of 65 off just 38 balls, powering the Challengers to victory. Ross Taylor was declared the Man of the Match for his efforts with the bat.
It was disappointment for the Bangalore crowd as the Cape Cobras’ win over Victoria resulted in the ouster of the home team. On the other hand, Delhi had a good chance of qualifying for the semis, provided they convincingly won against Bangalore and Cobras. With nothing but pride to play for, Anil Kumble won the toss and opted to field.
Sehwag started off in the way he is best known for, hitting Praveen Kumar for 3 boundaries in succession in the second over. The Delhi Dasher, as usual, kept finding the ropes at a regular rate, not giving the Bangalore seamers any leeway. Gambhir was lending him good support, nudging around for singles and giving his senior partner most of the strike. However, the opening partnership came to an end, two short of the fifty run mark when Dale Steyn got the better of Gautam Gambhir in the 6th over, dismissing him for 11. It could have been a double treat for Steyn but for Praveen Kumar who put down the new-man Dilshan the very next delivery.
There was another opportunity for the Bangalore team to see the back of Dilshan. However, Virat Kohli missed out on an easy run-out chance, giving the hard-hitting Lankan his second breather. There was yet another missed chance when Uthappa failed to hit the stumps which would have found Sehwag short of the crease. However, that did not prove to be costly as van der Merwe struck to get the all-important wicket of Sehwag, dismissing him for 47.
Along came the Birthday Boy and he shook Delhi off its feet. Celebrating his 39th birthday, Anil Kumble bagged his first wicket by trapping Dinesh Karthik leg-before. He was not finished by any means as he rocked Delhi further with the crucial wickets of Dilshan and Owais Shah, reducing the Daredevils to 117/5 after 17 overs.
Bhatia managed to score some runs towards the end before Praveen Kumar picked up Tiwary off the last ball as Delhi wound up their innings at 138/6. Kumble’s spell was the stand-out performance as the ‘Old Warhorse’ finished up with figures of 3/20.
The Bangalore chase took a hit in the second over when Manish Pandey, suffering from cramps, had to walk off the field since the new rules say that a runner cannot be employed on event of a player suffering from cramps, which meant that Rahul Dravid had to come out to bat. The RCB innings suffered another blow when Dirk Nannes struck in the 4th over to dismiss Robin Uthappa for 9. This brought Ross Taylor to the crease who decided to employ the aggressive approach. Taking the attack to Glenn McGrath, the Kiwi hit him for 3 fours in the 5th over.
While Dravid was his steady self, Ross Taylor was in the attacking mode as the pair tried to get Bangalore closer to the target. Taylor had a lucky break when Ashish Nehra put down a sitter off Mishra’s bowling. However, that did not deter Ross Taylor from restricting his stroke making. While some of his hits crossed the boundary ropes, some fours came courtesy of edges down to third man. Dravid too had his share of luck when Rajat Bhatia put down an easy return chance. Once again in the tournament, the poor fielding of the Indian teams and their inability to hit the stumps showed them in bad light.
Ross Taylor made optimum usage of the let-ups by sending Delhi on a leather hunt. He hit Amit Mishra for two sixes and a four in the 12th over, bringing up his fifty in the process. The Taylor blitzkrieg finally came to an end when Dirk Nannes struck for the second time, castling the stumps of Taylor. However the Kiwi had done enough damage with his 38 ball 65, helping Bangalore to a position where they just required 31 to win off 41 balls.
While Kumble had a memorable outing earlier in the day, Amit Mishra had a forgettable one. The leggie was never given respite as Virat Kohli took toll of him, hitting him for 3 fours and a six off his final over. Mishra finished off with figures of 0/59. It was then all over for the Daredevils when Rahul Dravid hit Nehra for a six, taking Bangalore to victory with 29 balls to spare. Dravid remained unbeaten on 32 while Virat Kohli played a quick-fire innings of 24.
—–Agencies