Chargers soar to the summit

Kumbles magnificent effort goes in vain in final

Chasing a modest target of 144, the Royal Challengers rode on cameos from Roelof van der Merwe (32) and Ross Taylor (27) to come near the mark, but eventually finished at 137 for nine. Put into bat, the Chargers had earlier found their nemesis in Anil Kumble (4/16), and it took Herschelle Gibbs’ unbeaten 48-ball 53 and Andrew Symonds’ brisk 33 for them to reach 143 for six.

Despite the defeat, Kumble’s was a towering presence on the day. The Bangalore captain won the toss, made the right decisions, struck with the ball whenever the tie threatened to slip out of his team’s hands but still found himself at the wrong end of the result.

For the Royal Challengers, the target was not huge but they lost Jacques Kallis (16) and the in-form Manish Pandey (4) early to find themselves in a spot of bother. Coming at number three, Van der Merwe had a busy time in the middle but even his lusty hits were not enough.

He copped some sledging from Symonds and ran some crazy singles before hitting Ryan Harris for two sixes in the same over. Just when it seemed as if the South African would give the Challengers the momentum, Pragyan Ojha cut short his eventful 21-ball stay.

After the strategy break, the Chargers tightened their grip with Symonds removing Taylor and Virat Kohli (7) with successive deliveries, and the Challengers lost momentum from there onwards.

Earlier, it was Kumble’s four-wicket haul that restricted the Chargers to a sub-150 score.

Kumble was in the thick of things right from the start, quick to win the individual battle against his opposite number Gilchrist. Kumble, who opened the attack, castled the scoreless Gilchrist with his third delivery to send groans in the Hyderabad dug-out.

Having removed Gilchrist, Kumble then made way for R Vinay Kumar and the right-arm pacer responded by removing T Suman (10) in his first over. Symonds too would have been back with just five runs against his name, but Rahul Dravid  dropped a sitter off Vinay at slip.

Symonds decided he would made the Challengers pay the price for the lapse. Vinay was dispatched across the ropes, Kallis copped back-to-back boundaries and Van der Merwe was hit out of the park in his first over. But just when things threatened to go out of control, the Royal Challengers once again found their messiah in their skipper as Kumble returned to remove Symonds in the ninth over to cut short his 21-ball stay in the middle.

Gibbs and Rohit Sharma (24) guided the side past the 100-mark. Kumble went on to claim Rohit and Venugopala Rao (0) in his last over, restricting the Chargers.

SCORE BOARD

DECCAN CHARGERS: Adam Gilchrist b Kumble 0, Herschelle Gibbs (not out) 53, T Suman c Pandey b Vinay 10, Andrew Symonds b Kumble 33, Rohit Sharma c Pandey b Kumble 24, Y Venugopala Rao c Taylor b Kumble 0, Azhar Bilakhia lbw Vinay 6, Ryan Harris (not out) 9. Extras (LB-2, W-6) 8. Total (for 6 wkts, 20 overs) 143.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-18, 3-58, 4-110, 5-115, 6-134.
Bowling: Anil Kumble 4-0-16-4, Praveen Kumar 4-0-43-0, Jacques Kallis 4-0-24-0, R Vinay Kumar 4-0-30-2, Roelof van der Merwe 4-0-28-0.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Jacques Kallis b RP Singh 16, Manish Pandey c Gilchrist b Ojha 4, Roelof van der Merwe st Gilchrist b Ojha 32, Rahul Dravid b Harmeet 9, Ross Taylor c Rao b Symonds 27, Virat Kohli st Gilchrist b Symonds 7, Mark Boucher c Gibbs b Harmeet 5, Robin Uthappa (not out) 17, Praveen Kumar c RP Singh b Ojha 2, R Vinay Kumar c Harmeet b Harris 8, Anil Kumble (not out) 1. Extras (LB-8, W-1) 9. Total (for 9 wkts, 20 overs) 137.
Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-36, 3-57, 4-79, 5-99, 6-99, 7-107, 8-110, 9-129.
Bowling: Ryan Harris 4-1-35-1, Rudra Pratap Singh 4-0-16-1, Andrew Symonds 3-0-18-2, Pragyan Ojha 4-0-28-3, Harmeet Singh 4-0-23-2, Rohit Sharma 1-0-9-0.