Super Pandey fashions RCB victory

Bangalore team drubs Deccan Chargers by 12 runs in the last league tie to occupy third spot

Opting to bat, Royal Challengers Bangalore rode on Pandey’s blistering 73-ball 114 to post a competitive 170 for four before restricting Deccan Chargers to 158 for six in their alloted 20 overs.
By virtue of this victory, the Royal Challengers moved to the third spot on the table with 16 points and will take on second-placed Chennai Super Kings in the second semifinal on Saturday, while Deccan Chargers will be up against Delhi Daredevils in the first semifinal on Friday.

Chasing 171 for victory, Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs got Deccan Chargers off to a rollicking start scoring 64 runs in the first six overs. Both the openers were in a murderous mood, especially Gibbs as he dispatched Praveen Kumar for back-to-back sixes and a four to score 22 runs off the fifth over.

Roelof van ver Merwe too came in the Gibbs’ firing line as he hit the left-arm spinner for two sixes — first over midwicket and then over long off in the next over.

But a clever bowling change from skipper Anil Kumble (2/23) in the seventh over, bringing in Balachandra Akhil (2/18) did the trick, with Gilchrist (15 off 18) top-edging a pull to give a simple catch to van der Merwe. It could have been twin blow for Deccan, but thanks to the butter-fingered Robin Uthappa, Gibbs registered his 50 in 32 balls. Uthappa dropped a sitter at long-off when Gibbs was on 49 off Akhil’s opening over.

But Akhil eventually got his man in the 15th over with Deccan needing 55 of 36 deliveries. Gibbs mistimed his pull shot only to find Pandey taking a fine catch on the deep square boundary.Van der Merwe then cleaned up Andrew Symonds to reduce Deccan to 120 for four.

Needing 33 of the last two overs, Kumble drove the final nail in Deccan’s coffin, picking up dangerman Rohit Sharma (12 off 12) who was caught in the deep by Kohli. Deccan required 26 off the last over but Azhar Bilakhia and Ryan Harris could only manage 14.

Despite the defeat, Deccan Chargers progressed to the semifinal stage, thanks to their better net run rate than Kings XI Punjab, who were locked with the Hyderabad outfit at 14 points from as many outings.

Earlier, Pandey proved the saying ‘fortune favours the brave’ right as he made full use of the life provided by RP Singh when he was on two and struck 10 fours and four sixes en route his hundred.
The 19-year-old stitched a crucial 55-run partnership with van der Merwe (23 off 18) for the second wicket to set the platform for the big score.

Royal Challengers suffered an early blow when their last match hero Jacques Kaliis gave a simple catch to T Suman at square leg off RP Singh in the second over. The Bangalore side could have been in further trouble in the very next over had RP Singh not dropped Pandey off Harris at third man.
Van der Merwe added salt to RP Singh’s wounds when he struck the left-arm pacer for two consecutive boundaries to take 10 runs of the fourth over.

The South African was not there to stick around and meant business from the word go. He welcomed Pragyan Ojha (2/32) with a boundary and then a lofty hit over midwicket fence to pick up 12 runs off the left-arm spinners opening over.

But the dangerous looking 55-run stand finally came to an end when van der Merwe was stumped by Gilchrist off Symonds with the Bangalore scoreboard reading 64/2 at the halfway mark. However, Pandey was not to be bogged down by the fall of wickets as the Karnataka lad made some beefy blows towards the end to propel RCB to a formidable total.

Scoreboard

Royal Challengers: Jacques Kallis c Suman b Singh 5; Manish Pandey (not out) 114; RE van der Merwe st Gilchrist b Symonds 23; Rahul Dravid c Gibbs b Ojha 6; Ross Taylor c Singh b Ojha 1; Virat Kohli (not out) 19; Extras (LB-1, W-1) 2. Total (4 wickets; 20 overs) 170.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-62, 3-107, 4-134.

Bowling: Ryan Harris 4-0-25-0; R P Singh 4-0-47-1; Andrew Symonds 4-0-15-1; Jaskaran Singh 3-0-32-0; Pragyan Ojha 4-0-32-2; T S Suman 1-0-18-0.

Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist c van der Merwe b Akhil 15; Herschelle Gibbs c Pandey b Akhil 60; Suman c van der Merwe b Kumble 12; Andrew Symonds b van der Merwe 18; Rohit Sharma c Kohli b Kumble 12; Venugopal Rao (run out) 8; Azhar Bilakhia (not out) 16; Ryan Harris (not out) 4. Extras (B-4, LB-3, W-6) 13. Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 158.

Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-91, 3-116, 4-119, 5-137, 6-138.
Bowling: Anil Kumble 4-0-23-2; Jacques Kallis 1-0-8-0; Praveen Kumar 4-0-45-0; RE van der Merwe 4-0-32-1; B Akhil 4-0-18-2; Virat Kohli 3-0-25-0.