Up against an admittedly better equipped Kings XI Punjab, Bangalore suffered their fifth defeat in the Indian Premier League.

The victory for the visitors was never in doubt once they restricted the hosts to a miserly 126, Zaheer Khan's dismissal of opener James Hopes and an impressive Praveen Kumar’s twin strikes to get rid of Ramnaresh Sarwan (31) and Yuvraj Singh, creating no more than an artificial excitement. Kings XI’s fifth straight win catapulted them to the top with 10 points alongside table toppers Rajasthan Royals while the Challengers, with four points, languish at seventh place.

Aussie left-hander Shaun Marsh, who made a memorable IPL debut against Delhi Daredevils, played a calculated innings (39 off 34 balls) and with the reliable Mahela Jayawardene there till the end, Kings XI romped home with six wickets and 10 balls to spare. Challengers bowlers — especially the pacemen — bowled their hearts out, but given the meagre target, they were always fighting a losing battle.

Fair assistance

Put in to bat on a pitch that offered fair assistance to the seamers, Challengers — wicket-keeper Devraj Patil and Camerron White coming in for Bharath Chipli and Mark Boucher — were on the backfoot as early as the fourth ball of their innings. Nothing could have reflected the blow-hot blow-cold nature of S Sreesanth better than the crowd's response to the Kerala bowler.

When his name was announced prior to the start of the match, the right-armer received the biggest cheers among his team-mates but no more than five overs into the match, he was attracting boos from the same gathering.

Much to their chagrin, however, the right-arm seamer was just too hot to handle on the day. In a dream opening over — in fact that can be said about his entire spell that cost just 16 runs — where he got the ball move both ways, the volatile bowler foxed in-form opener Wasim Jaffer to nick an away going delivery to ’keeper Uday Kaul and then cleaned up Cameron White with the one that shaped into the right-hander.

Terrible mix-up

With Jacques Kallis making a long way back to the hut without opening his account after a mix-up with Kohli, Challengers were off to a disastrous start. Dravid, on countless occasions, has saved India in Test matches from depths of despair. The right-hander, after picking a side that is more brittle than old bones (no pun intended), has successfully stepped up to the plate in this format as well.

After raising 54 runs in 52 balls along with Kohli for the fourth-wicket to steady the rocking boat, the battle-scarred veteran unleashed an array of strokes — with a flat six off VRV Singh over covers being the pick of his shots — as he brought up his highest score (66, 51b, 9x4, 1x6) in the IPL. It was largely on the back of Dravid's knock that the Challengers could stack up a respectable total.

Man of the match Sreesanth's efforts seemed to have rubbed on to his fellow bowlers too. After pushing the home side to the wall, Kings XI bowlers kept up the pressure with a bowling that was effective without being intimidating.

Rest follow suit

Irfan Pathan was at his parsimonious best while leggie Piyush Chawla (3/25) provided the regular breakthroughs to keep the Challengers at bay, only the waywardness of VRV Singh and Gagndeep Singh helping the hosts getting away with total humiliation.

Only Dravid, and to a lesser extent Kohli (34), seemed to have the wherewithal to weather the storm as none of the other batsmen managed to reach double figures.

The three run outs — more due to batsmen's profligate ways than any brilliance on the part of the fielders — didn’t help Challengers’ cause either.

With only seven matches left in the league for Dravid's side, the latest defeat, barring the unforeseen, has shut the Bangalore side virtually out of contention for a semifinal spot.

SCORE BOARD

ROYAL CHALLENGERS: Wasim Jaffer c Kaul b Sreesanth 0 (4b), Virat Kohli c Sreesanth b Pathan 34 (36b, 5x4), Cameron White b Sreesanth 0 (1b), Jacques Kallis (run out) 0 (3b), Rahul Dravid c Jayawardene b VRV Singh 66 (51b, 9x4, 1x6), Misbah-ul-Haq lbw Chawla 8 (7b, 1x4), Praveen Kumar c Kaul b Chawla 0 (2b), Devaraj Patil (run out) 4 (1b), Zaheer Khan b Chawla 0 (1b), Anil Kumble (run out) 3 (7b), Dale Steyn (not out) 1 (3b). Extras (LB-1, W-9) 10. Total (all out, 19.2 overs) 126.
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Jaffer), 1-2 (White), 3-15 (Kallis), 4-69 (Kohli), 5-98 (Misbah), 6-98 (Praveen), 7-102 (Patil), 8-116 (Zaheer), 9-124 (Dravid).
Bowling: Sreesanth 4-0-16-2 (w-2), Pathan 3.2-0-13-1 (w-1), Gagandeep 3-0-28-0, VRV Singh 4-0-33-1 (w-1), Chawla 4-0-25-3 (w-5), Hopes 1-0-10-0.
Scoring pattern: after 5 overs: 19/3; 10: 51/3; 15: 97/4; end of innings: 126 all out (19.2 overs).
Runs during power play (1-6): 26/3.
KINGS XI PUNJAB: Shaun Marsh b Zaheer 39 (34b, 4x4, 1x6), James Hopes c White b Zaheer 5 (4b, 1x4), Ramnaresh Sarwan c Patil b Praveen 31 (30b, 5x4, 1x6), Yuvraj Singh c Patil b Praveen 1 (4b), Mahela Jayawardena (not out) 17 (22b, 2x4), Irfan Pathan (not out) 17 (17b, 1x4, 1x6). Extras (LB-10, W-7) 17. Total (for 4 wkts, 18.2 overs) 127.
Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Hopes), 2-65 (Sarwan), 3-81 (Yuvraj), 4-106 (Marsh).
Bowling: Steyn 4-0-16-0 (w-2), Zaheer 4-0-29-2 (w-3), Praveen 4-1-22-2, Kallis 3-0-14-0, Kumble 3.2-0-36-0 (w-2).
Scoring pattern: after 5 overs: 44/1; 10: 81/2; 15: 109/4; end of innings: 127/4 (18.2 overs). Runs during power play (1-6): 52/1.