Bangalore dreams stay alive

Kallis hits unbeaten 58 as RCB post seven-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils

Kallis (58 not out) carried his bat through the innings hitting two fours and two sixes from 56 balls to steer Bangalore to their seventh win from 13 matches after Delhi elected to bat and posted 134 for seven.

Kallis first shared a 70-run stand from 69 balls for the second wicket with Rahul Dravid (34-ball 38) and then combined with Ross Taylor (12-ball 25) for 29 runs from just 14 balls for the third wicket to take Bangalore home with one over to spare.

Bangalore, now at fourth place in the IPL table with 14 points, will though need to win their last match against Deccan Chargers at Centurion on May 21 to make sure that they make it to the semifinals. Chasing 135 for a win on a slow Wanderers pitch, Bangalore batsmen, except for Taylor, grafted for runs for most part of the match.

Robin Uthappa (1) continued his poor form but the other opener Kallis and one down Dravid stabilised the Bangalore innings.

The two experienced duo shunned extravagance and runs came in singles with boundaries few and far between though Kallis lifted an Aavishkar Salvi delivery for a huge six in the fourth over. From 19 for one at the end of fifth over, Kallis and Dravid took Bangalore to 54 for one at the strategy break before the former India captain fell, caught and bowled by debutant Yogesh Nagar.

In-form Taylor, as soon as he came out, punished Salvi for a four and a six off consecutive balls to show his aggressive intent while Kallis dropped anchor only to open out towards the close.
Next over, Taylor eased the pressure further by smashing two sixes off the first two balls of Yogesh but he paid the price of being too adventurous.

The New Zealander, whose cameo brought down the asking rate, tried another six off the third ball of Yogesh to hole out to Daniel Vettori near the boundary. Bangalore needed 33 from the last five overs, but they finished off the match in four.

For Delhi, Yogesh Nagar returned with two for 20 while Ashish Nehra took one wicket.
Earlier, Bangalore bowlers were spot on in their line and length and fielders backed them with some good work to restrict Delhi to 134 for seven. Dinesh Karthik top-scored with a 29-ball 31 while AB de Villiers and Gautam Gambhir contributed 28 and 27 respectively. Praveen Kumar returned with figures of 3/30 from his four overs while captain Anil Kumble chipped in with two wickets.

Delhi were in for a now familiar top order failure as they were down two wickets with just one run on the board in the first over with captain Virender Sehwag and Mithun Manhas falling to Praveen both out for a duck.

Sehwag, who has aggregated 109 from his nine innings so far, flicked straight to Taylor  off Praveen. Two balls later, Manhas edged a Praveen  bouncer to Kallis in the slips.

SCOREBOARD

DELHI DAREDEVILS: Gambhir c Taylor b Kallis 27, Sehwag c Taylor b Kumar 0, Manhas c Kallis b Kumar 0, AB de Villiers b van der Merwe 28, Karthik c Uthappa b Kumar 31, McDonald b Kumble 3, Nagar c Uthappa b Kumble 20, Maharoof (not out) 18, Vettori (not out) 4. Extras (W-3) 3. Total (for 7 wkts; 20 overs) 134.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-1, 3-37, 4-65, 5-70, 6-109, 7-114.
Bowling: Praveen 4-0-30-3, Kallis 4-0-17-1, Akhil 2-0-20-0, Van der Merwe 4-0-31-1, Kumble 4-0-24-2, Kohli 2-0-12-0.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS: Uthappa c Karthik b Nehra 1; Kallis (not out) 58; Dravid c&b Nagar 38;  Taylor c Vettori b Nagar 25; Boucher (not out) 10; Extras (LB-1, NB-2) 3; Total (for three wickets in 19 overs) 135.

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-72, 3-101.
Bowling: Nehra 4-0-21-1, Salvi 4-0-30-0, Maharoof 2-0-9-0, McDonald 3-0-22-0; Vettori 4-0-32-0, Nagar 2-0-20-2.