The IPL final could have gone either way but Andrew Symonds’ back-to-back strikes tilted the balance in favour of Deccan Chargers, according to captain Adam Gilchrist and his Bangalore counterpart Anil Kumble.

Chasing a modest 144, Bangalore looked on course for victory until Symonds struck twice in the 15th over, removing both Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli with the second and third deliveries respectively. Gilchrist believed the match was evenly poised until then and congratulated Bangalore on making it a great contest. “I think for us, Pragyan Ojha did really well claiming three crucial wickets but those two wickets in two balls, that really hurts especially when a team is chasing,” Gilchrist said.

Kumble agreed that over was the turning point. “On this track, chasing 144 was not a big task and we needed seven runs an over. But losing Taylor and Kohli in two balls hurt,” Kumble said. “Earlier, we lost Rahul [Dravid] and that put the brakes on. We didn’t have partnerships and still were one hit away from a win.”

They were also plenty of positives for both captains to dwell on. Gilchrist, who was adjudged the Player of the Tournament, was delighted with the performance of the youngsters in the team and he singled out Harmeet Singh, who took two wickets and a stunning catch, for special praise.

“We have a number of youngsters in the side and all of them are eager to learn and grow,” Gilchrist said. “It was amazing to see Harmeet tonight, the way he bowled and then took that amazing catch.”

Kumble credited his team-mates for the incredible turnaround in the tournament, having finished second from bottom last season. “Two weeks ago, after the match against Mumbai, we said it was tough to win five in a row and reach the final. I credit my teammates for doing just that and coming so far,” Kumble said. “Of course it was so near and yet so far but it was a good game of cricket today.”

He also pointed out that it was a deliberate ploy to open the bowling, since he wanted to get rid of the hard-hitting Gilchrist at the earliest. “If you let someone like Gilchrist get away, he would run away with the match. It was for me to put up my hand and bowl. Fortunately it worked well,” Kumble said.

Life came a full circle for Gilchrist and his team following a spectacular reversal of fortunes from the previous season, when they finished at the bottom of the table. Gilchrist felt the lack of pressure had a positive effect on his side.

“I really encouraged our team to try to play everything down and fly under the radar if you like, because we were happy with that, without having any expectations on us,” Gilchrist said. “This is only the cricket I play now, so given what we went through last year, this is just a really tremendous effort from the whole franchise to turn it around. It’s just been a great experience.

“The first thing I said at the start of our first meeting was, ‘Guys, we’re all in it together’. That was my first line of our first team meeting and yeah, we’re all going to enjoy this together.”

He was also full of praise for the way Bangalore scripted a very similar revival against the odds. “I’m thrilled for him (Kumble) and their franchise, the way they turned it around,” Gilchrist said. “They experienced a lot of the pain and disappointment that we went through last year.”

Deccan Chargers 143 for 6 (Gibbs 53*, Kumble 4-16) beat Bangalore Royal Challengers 137 for 9 (Ojha 3-28, Symonds 2-18) by six runs…

Deccan Chargers took the bull in their emblem too seriously, as they came out charging to defend a modest total. They bowled with fire, they fielded aggressively, they sledged with vengeance, and literally, almost by physical force, hustled Bangalore Royal Challengers out in a thrilling final that lived up to the occasion.

The last of several turning points in the match was the 15th over of Bangalore’s innings, bowled by Andrew Symonds who matched his verbal skills earlier in the night with the wickets of Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli off back-to-back deliveries. Bangalore were 99 for 6 when the over started.

Bangalore needed 27 from the last two overs, and 14 from the last, but RP Singh and Ryan Harris kept their cool despite a six from Robin Uthappa.

Anil Kumble celebrated like a teenager but bowled like the veteran champion he is, and kept Deccan Chargers to a below-par total in the IPL final, at the Wanderers. Even after the 52-run partnership in the middle overs between Rohit Sharma and Herschelle Gibbs, Deccan managed three less than what Bangalore Royal Challengers chased easily on a similar pitch at the same venue in the semi-final.

After Kumble provided Adam Gilchrist’s wicket in the first over, he pulled Deccan back every time they threatened to get away from them. Much like how he got his other bowlers to do the same last night. The man most thankful for Kumble’s second breakthrough was Rahul Dravid, who had dropped Andrew Symonds when on 5. Symonds then went on to remind Bangalore eerily of the line his batting partner Gibbs was apocryphally told during the 1999 World Cup.

Had Dravid caught Symonds then, Deccan would have been 23 for 3 in the sixth over. R Vinay Kumar would have taken his second wicket in his second over, and to think he wouldn’t even have played had B Akhil not got injured before the semi-final. In that same over Symonds crashed him over cover for four, and backed away and hit Jacques Kallis for back-to-back boundaries in the next over. Roelof van der Merwe was hit for a massive six next over. And Kumble had to turn to the man most likely to get a wicket on the night – himself.

Sure enough, in the ninth over, he bowled Symonds off the thigh pad. And off he went rushing towards Vinay at fine leg, and a relieved Dravid soon joined in the celebrations. If Kumble was animated now, just rewind to the first over. He chose to bowl it himself, to the man most likely to make this a one-sided final. To the third ball Gilchrist stepped out, and saw – didn’t see rather – a full ball squeeze under his bat and take the leg stump out. Off went Kumble, pumping fists and pointing to the dugout. All age barriers were broken then. And Kumble was not done yet.

Between the dismissals of Glichrist and Symonds, Gibbs had stayed inconspicuous in his struggle to get quick runs. After 13 overs Gibbs had reached just 18 off 29 deliveries. Either side of Symonds’ wicket, Bangalore stitched together a boundary-less spell of 26 balls. Then Rohit and Gibbs threatened to open up in the overs No. 14 and 15. Especially in the 15th, most expensive over of the innings with 20 runs coming off it, both the batsmen hit Praveen Kumar for a six each.

Suddenly Deccan had reached 109 for 3 after 16 overs, capable of anything in the last four. Kumble brought himself back, and inevitably he got Rohit with the second ball he bowled. For good measure he got Venugopal Rao with the last ball of his spell, ending with 4 for 16.

Towards the end Gibbs played a bizarre little innings. With two more sixes, he got to his fifty, and repaired his strike-rate, but faced only six balls in the last three overs. What was especially baffling was that he got 12 runs off those six balls, and yet kept taking twos to every ball in the last over, handing over the strike to Ryan Harris. Vinay for the second time in two nights bowled a superb last over, for just nine runs and a wicket this time. In those three overs Deccan added only 28.

Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo

A brilliant four wicket haul by Bangalore captain Anil Kumble restricted Hyderabad to a modest 143 for six from their 20 overs in the final of the Indian Premier League…

A double blow by Anil Kumble in his final over helped Bangalore send Rohit Sharma and Venugopal Rao back to the hut.

Sharma tried to turn things around for Hyderabad, playing some aggressive shots to put Bangalore under pressure.Rao tried to clear the Bangalore captain over the ropes but ended up being caught in the deep.

Herschelle Gibbs batted right through the innings but never seemed to get going.

Kumble rattled Gilchrist’s stumps to pack off the Hyderabad skipper for a duck.

Minutes after losing Gilchrist to Kumble, Hyderabad batsman TS Suman mistimed one to be caught by Manish Pandey off R Vinay Kumar.

Kumble brought himself back on to get rid of the dangerous Andrew Symonds.

Kumar got his second wicket when he had Azhar Bilakhi trapped in front of the wickets off the first delivery of the last over.

The Toss

Bangalore have won the toss and decided to field first in the final of the Indian Premier League against Hyderabad.

Teams

Bangalore Royal Challengers: MK Pandey, JH Kallis, RE van der Merwe, R Dravid, LRPL Taylor, RV Uthappa, V Kohli, MV Boucher, P Kumar, R Vinay Kumar, A Kumble

Deccan Chargers: AC Gilchrist, HH Gibbs, TS Suman, RG Sharma, A Symonds, Y Venugopal Rao, AA Bilakhia, RJ Harris, PP Ojha, Harmeet Singh, RP Singh

Bangalore Royal Challengers 149 for 4 (Pandey 48, Dravid 44) beat Chennai Super Kings 146 for 5 v (Parthiv 36, 2-38) by six wickets…

Last things first. Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers, placed at the bottom last year, will face each other for the IPL tomorrow. And lightning does strike twice. Ask Chennai Super Kings. They had shot under by setting Bangalore 147, but would have thought of it as a fighting total. Manish Pandey, who came out of nowhere and scored a century in the last game, didn’t think so. His 35-ball 48 almost killed the chase, and a minor hiccup later Bangalore were in the final.

If anything this was an even better innings, both in terms of the quality of strokeplay and in terms of this being a far bigger match. He got away with a square-drive in the first over, following a ball both wide and full. As if to say it was no fluke, he brought out a more classical square-drive, down on a knee, to the next delivery. Jacques Kallis matched that start with back-to-back square-cuts of equal ferocity and beauty in the second over.

But within seven deliveries Bangalore lost Kallis and Roelof van der Merwe. To pull them out of the shock Pandey produced boundaries with a back-foot punch and a drive on the run in two deliveries in the fourth over. Out of habit the slogs came out in the next two overs, but he cleared the leg-side field with them. By the end of the Powerplays Pandey had reached 29 off 14 deliveries, six fours, four of them along the ground, and Bangalore needed only 88 from 84.

Pandey had batting with him the best man possible – Rahul Dravid, whose classical strokeplay and superb planning, had a calming effect on the 19-year-old at the other end. His straight-drive off Shadab Jakati and the flick off Albie Morkel were shots as good as any played in the night. The key moment was always going to be when Muttiah Muralitharan, held back by MS Dhoni, would come on to bowl.

Murali started off with a big lbw shout against Pandey, and after that Dravid made a conscious effort of keeping the youngster away from the fox. Pandey finally fell when he went to slog-sweep the other spinner, Shadab Jakati, and a turnaround was in the offing. Fifty-three were required in 45 balls then, and Dravid seemed to have it under control until Murali came back and got him lbw in the 16th over. After an asphyxiating over, Bangalore required 35 off four overs.

Chennai needed a gamble then, after all other bowlers had been taken for runs. Suresh Raina bowled the next over, and both Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli took a six off him. The decisive, and the most symbolic, blow came in the next over when Kohli read a doosra, stepped out to Murali, and hit him straight down the ground for a big six. Bangalore’s fifth win in a row was all but sealed then.

The win, though, looked far away when Parthiv Patel stunned them after they had put Chennai in. The whole talk before the semi-final centered around the orange cap holder Mathew Hayden and whether he would be back for the big match. But Bangalore were hit from an unexpected quarter. It’s not often you go outscoring Hayden in good form, and if you do you better be playing exceptionally. That’s precisely what Parthiv did for a brief while.

Parthiv was attacked with short bowling, but he brought out the pulls, the cuts, and the upper-cuts. In the first six overs Chennai raced away to 52, and Hayden hadn’t even warmed up by then. In fact Parthiv had reached 32 off 20 deliveries, while Hayden was still 13. What odds would punters get for that?

But Anil Kumble and Bangalore regrouped fast. Smart bowling changes and smart bowling thereafter kept pulling Chennai back whenever they threatened to move too far out of reach. The result? A late assault never came. It was Kumble, who brought some control to the proceedings, coming in to bowl the sixth over. And then when Hayden went for one six too many off R Vinay Kumar and mis-hit to long-on, Kumble seized the opportunity.

He brought back Kallis, whose first two overs had cost 21. With his fourth delivery Kallis removed Parthiv and Bangalore could try and force restrain upon two new batsmen.

The two new batsmen were MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina, in that order. There was a period of quiet around the time-out, and Kallis went for five in his next two overs. Just when Raina looked like opening up, with a four and a six off Vinay, Kumble brought back Praveen in the 15th over. With the first ball, Praveen got Raina to sky a slower ball, and Bangalore had once again prevented Chennai from getting away.

Again, when Morkel slogged Kumble for a six after 23 balls without, van der Merwe got Dhoni, caught at long-on. Dhoni’s move to come in at No. 3 didn’t work: he didn’t hit any boundaries in his 28-ball 30.

Kumble handed over India’s Test captaincy to Dhoni, but today he had outfoxed his opposite number.

Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo

Chennai Super Kings have managed to post 146 for five in their alloted 20 overs against Bangalore Royal Challengers…

Chennai Super Kings got off to a flying start after Bangalore Royal Challengers won the toss and put them into bat in the second semifinal of the IPL II at Johannesburg on Saturday.

Openers — Matthew Hayden and Parthiv Patel came out firing all guns to give Chennai a fabulous start. The duo simply took off from the word go as they showed little mercy on Bangalore bowlers.

When Vinay Kumar managed to get the important breakthrough for the Royal Challengers by seeing off Hayden, Chennai had already scored 61 in seven overs.

Hayden departed for a well-made 19-ball 26. Thereafter, Patel also took little time to join his partner in thedressing room, getting out for 36 off 25 balls.

Captain MS Dhoni (28) and Suresh Raina (20) also chipped in and got the momentum going even though they failed to maintain the same run-rate.

Earlier, Bangalore made just one change in the team, bringing in Vinay Kumar in place of injured Akhil.
On the other hand, Chennai announced two changes — Jakati comes in for Ashwin while Hayden returns in place of George Bailey.

Bangalore look to stretch their dream run when they clash with Chennai in the second IPL semifinal in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Both the teams have taken contrasting routes to reach the last-four stage as Chennai Super Kings dominated in the first-half of the league stage before suffering some close defeats while Royal Challengers Bangalore gradually picked up after the change of guard in their team.

Bangalore was one of the two bottom placed teams in the first edition and have done a remarkable job this season.

Teams:

Chennai Super Kings: Matthew Hayden, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Jacob Oram, Albie Morkel, Shadab Jakati, L Balaji, Muttiah Muralitharan, Manpreet Gony.

Bangalore Royal Challengers: Manish Pandey, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor, Virat Kohli, Mark Boucher (wk), Roelof van der Merwe, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Anil Kumble (capt).

Bangalore Royal Challengers 170 for 4 (Pandey 114*) beat Deccan Chargers 158 for 6 (Gibbs 60, Akhil 2-18, Kumble 2-23) by 12 runs…

In a campaign that has included matches insipid and inspiring Bangalore Royal Challengers have well and truly come to life. Maintaining the momentum of three consecutive wins, they pulled the rug from under Deccan Chargers’ feet and went to No. 3 in the points table, setting up a semi-final clash with the Chennai Super Kings on Saturday. Deccan will play Delhi Daredevils in Friday’s semi-final.

At the end of a clinical win, Bangalore can thank Manish Pandey and RP Singh. Promoting Pandey to open in a pressure situation, Bangalore nearly lost him in the third over but RP’s gross misjudgment at third man settled the nerves and then some. Either cutting solidly or swatting and slapping with efficiency rather than grace, Pandey grabbed the opportunity and notched up just the second century this season – and the first by an Indian in either season. Few in South Africa would have heard of the Under-19 batsman before today but should remember him after this amazing effort.

Teams have struggled to defend under lights at Centurion, and Bangalore were put on the backfoot as Herschelle Gibbs waded into the attack. But Anil Kumble took pace off the ball and once Gibbs and Andrew Symonds were dismissed in relative succession it all got too tough for Deccan.

RP’s drop in the third over came after Jacques Kallis pulled his seventh ball to short square leg. It proved a costly error. Pandey began his innings looking out of sorts, twice inside-edging Ryan Harris on the bounce to Adam Gilchrist and top-edging safely to third man. Batting as though Bangalore needed to chase 250, Pandey clouted the ball through the leg side with abandon.

Roelof van der Merwe showed a liking for RP on the leg side, twice crashing him over through and over mid-on for boundaries, and weighed in with 23 from 18 balls. After he was well stumped off Symonds in the tenth over, Pandey weighed the situation and hung on. By this time he was 33, and on resumption after the strategic break dumped T Suman’s offspin for consecutive sixes to raise his half-century. Now his timing had improved considerably and Bangalore were going at seven an over.

Very strong through the leg side, Pandey’s main scoring option was the swipe across the line. RP returned to bowl the 14th over and Pandey reminded him of his reprieve, swatting and edging fours. He continued the same way after Pragyan Ojha accounted for Rahul Dravid in the next over, clearing his front leg and slogging against the turn. The caress – Pandey steered Jaskaran for four – was followed by the clubbed – next ball disappeared for six – and the fortuitous – an edge beat Gilchrist for four – as Pandey moved to 97 at the end of the 17th over.

The landmark came up with a single down the ground and there wasn’t much fanfare. Virat Kohli took a cue and pulled six more, followed by a top edge that dropped safely between two clueless fielders, and deposited the last ball over the ropes. That last over summed up the course the two teams had run.

With Gilchrist struggling for timing, Gibbs took over the responsibility of scoring and did so in imitable fashion. He survived a shout against an Kumble topspinner when on 5 but didn’t refrain from walking across his stumps, lapping and pulling the bowlers to distraction. Kallis hobbled off with a troublesome hamstring and Gibbs decided to take on Praveen Kumar. The first two balls were short-arm-flicked for sixes, the third was lapped for four, and Gilchrist put away a low full toss. Gibbs then dismissed van der Merwe for a couple sixes upon introduction. Taking full toll of the half-volleys and stray balls that were on offer, Gibbs blasted 45 of the 68 runs added by the openers, lashing boundaries on both sides of the wicket.

He was dropped on 49 – soon after Gilchrist went for 15 – but didn’t do much damage after Deccan went into the strategic break on a healthy 79 for 1. Symonds walked out in the 11th over after Kumble got Suman, and Rohit Sharma followed him in second ball of the 15th when Gibbs lost his grip and skied one to a tumbling Pandey in the deep. From a strong position Deccan lost a second. With 52 needed in five, Kumble called back van der Werwe and he bowled Symonds first ball. The pressure was on Rohit and Venugopal Rao but neither contributed; Rao was run out in the 18th over and in the next Rohit lofted Kumble to a very calm Kohli at long-on. The 26 needed off the final over was too much.

Bangalore showed an intensity that indicated how keen they were to erase the loss from the last time these two teams met. Pandey has said he would like to join the army, like his father, if he is unable to become a professional cricketer. If he can score hundreds like this going forward he won’t need to reach for that application form.

Jamie Alter is a senior sub-editor at Cricinfo

A resurgent Bangalore Royal Challengers will clash with Deccan Chargers in a virtual quarter-final on Thursday…

As the race to reach the semi-finals of Indian Premier League nears a thrilling climax, Bangalore and Hyderabad will battle it out in the middle.

Bangalore Royal Challengers, who started IPL’s season-II with an upset win over defending champions Rajasthan Royals, will wind down the league engagement and a victory in the last match will propel them to the last-four stage.

Inconsistency a constant with Bangalore, Hyderabad

What makes this match interesting besides the obvious lure of a last-four berth is that both Bangalore Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers were the bottom placed teams last season and have made a significant progress to press for a semi-final spot this time.

And both teams, with 14 points from 13 matches, would now hope to make all the hard work count.
Deccan, after a dazzling start, had been inconsistent, allowing others to catch up.

The one-run defeat to Mumbai Indians in their last encounter have hurt them a lot. But they need to pull up their socks for one final fling in the most crucial game so far in the tournament.

Inconsistency has also been a constant with the Bangalore Royal Challengers. They have won seven of their 13 matches losing six, the same as Deccan.

But off late, they are in the middle of another purple patch, having dispatched Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils in their last three encounters.

Royal Challengers have done well so far under Anil Kumble’s astute leadership. At the same time they have shown a tendency of relying heavily on the batting of Jacques Kallis.

They have some clean hitters in Ross Taylor and Robin Uthappa, but they need to provide Kallis support against a Deccan bowling attack that boasts RP Singh, the tournament’s highest wicket-taker so far with 19 scalps.

Kumble’s guile will be tested against the likes of Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs at the top of the order while Andrew Symonds and Rohit Sharma can trouble many with their big hitting in the middle.

With a berth in the semi-finals acting as the incentive, this match could offer plenty of high drama.

Approaching milestones

Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Deccan Chargers

• Adam Gilchrist (831) requires just five runs to regain the top spot and to overtake Suresh Raina’s tally of 835 in the IPL.
• Gilchrist (24) needs just one six to become the first batsman to complete 25 sixes in the IPL 2009.
• With another five runs, Gilchrist (395) would become the fourth to aggregate 400 runs or more in the IPL 2009. The top three are: Matthew Hayden (546), Abraham de Villiers (433) and Suresh Raina (414).

Head to Head

Bangalore Royal Challengers 135 for 3 (Kallis 58*, Dravid 38, Taylor 25, Nagar 2-20) beat Delhi Daredevils 134 for 7 (Karthik 31, Praveen 3-30, Kumble 2-24) by seven wickets…

Bangalore Royal Challengers boosted their chances of securing a place in the semi-finals, winning a crucial game against Delhi Daredevils fairly comfortably at the Wanderers. Jacques Kallis starred in an excellent all-round performance, playing an important role in restricting Delhi to a chaseable score, and shepherding the chase with an assured half-century to take his team to fourth place.

Bangalore were dented early with the wicket of Robin Uthappa, but Rahul Dravid and Kallis timed the chase well, intent on preserving their wickets in early phase before opening up. They did get themselves into a bit of a hole after the early setback, struggling to get singles, and relying instead on the bad balls to score off. They inched to 27 in the Powerplay, with boundaries – including a six over midwicket by Kallis – accounting for 18 of those runs. But with the field spread, and the batsmen set, the rest of the innings panned out according to plan.

Virender Sehwag may have missed a trick by opting to bring the spinner in as late as the ninth over. Though the opening bowlers Ashish Nehra and Avishkar Salvi had proved tidy, neither Dravid nor Kallis had offered any chances. They then approached the chase as one would in an ODI, piercing the field with little difficulty and scoring the odd boundary to knock off 27 in the four overs before the timeout. The only scare was an incredibly difficult attempt at a catch by AB de Villiers at cover, who failed to latch onto a ball hammered by Kallis.

Amid the spate of singles and twos, Dravid and Kallis ensured there were no wasted opportunities. Andrew McDonald’s first ball, a juicy half-volley was duly dispatched for a boundary by Dravid and a rank long hop from Vettori received the same treatment. But just when a predictable outcome seemed on the cards, Dravid lobbed a catch back to offspinner Yogesh Nagar.

With 65 needed off 48, Delhi still had an outside chance, but Ross Taylor quashed it with a blistering cameo, displaying shades of the monstrous assault against Kolkata which put Bangalore back in contention for a place in the top four. He wasted little time to settle into his groove, leading the charge in the 14th over, punishing freebies from Salvi for a four over extra cover and a massive six over midwicket. Nagar then erred in length the next over to watch the ball sail over deep midwicket and deep square leg for two more sixes, before Taylor – a victim of complacency – holed out to long-on. But the damage had been done, though a tight over from Vettori next up gave Delhi the only sign of hope.

The game was effectively sealed in the 18th over, with Kallis launching Vettori for six and a four over cover to narrow it down to 9 off 12. Mark Boucher flicked Nehra for a boundary, and the pair knocked off the rest in singles to complete a comprehensive win against the table-toppers.

Bangalore’s win was set up by a professional bowling effort, as Kallis and Praveen Kumar struck early to dent a strong Delhi line-up on a slow pitch. The spinners, led by Anil Kumble, then took over, restraining the middle order before Dinesh Karthik staged an inadequate recovery.

The tone was set in the first over with the wicket of a struggling Virender Sehwag, who failed to curb his instinct, clipping Praveen straight to square leg. When Mithun Manhas, promoted to No.3, top-edged a pull to slip two balls later, the responsibility, yet again, was palmed off to the middle order.

Kallis had struggled as a bowler this tournament, capturing just four wickets and proving ridiculously expensive. But his spell today marked a stark contrast, as he used his variations well, consistently probed the batsmen by maintaining a tight line outside offstump and dried up the runs at one end. Though Delhi had been provided some release by an undeterred Gautam Gambhir, Kallis was rewarded for his persistence when the left hander mistimed an attempt to clear point.

Spin has played a decisive influence in the tournament, often introduced before the Powerplay, but Kallis’ frugality meant that Roelof van der Merwe didn’t come on until the eighth over. Delhi did their best to keep up the run-rate, de Villiers scoring a run-a-ball 28, but when he, their best batsman, failed to pick an arm ball by van der Merwe, Bangalore were firmly in control. Pace ceded the floor to spin, and the newbie Andrew McDonald, replacing Tillakaratne Dilshan, was yorked by Anil Kumble to continue the slide.

Karthik and Nagar cobbled up a fighting stand of 39, but both fell trying to accelerate. Delhi did post a competitive score, and a slow track, holding up and taking spin, gave them reason for encouragement. But they were undone by a brilliantly executed run-chase, that has intensified the race for the knockout stage.

Siddhartha Talya is an editorial assistant at Cricinfo

Bangalore Royal Challengers 132 for 8 (Taylor 46, Kohli 38) beat Chennai Super Kings 129 (Hayden 60, Kumble 2-12) by two wickets…

Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Chennai Super Kings in a nail-biter to keep their semi-final hopes alive. They were chasing only 130 but an early collapse and tight bowling from Chennai meant the required run-rate soared before a six from Praveen Kumar in the penultimate over brought them back and they won with two balls to spare.

An innings of two halves began with another brutal Matthew Hayden knock – 60 off 38 balls – before Chennai Super Kings dissolved in the face of some tight Bangalore bowling, losing their last six wickets for 28 runs and ending with an under-par 129.

Hayden’s early power-hitting had managed to keep Chennai on track for a good score after they lost two wickets inside the Powerplay, the run-rate approaching nine an over. Bangalore’s bowlers took control after the strategy break, adding pressure to the fall of wickets by conceding only singles. Chennai crossed 100 in the 13th over but managed only 28 more in the next seven. The noose was tightened by Anil Kumble and Jacques Kallis – chiefly responsible for stemming the run flow with two wickets in consecutive overs, one of them a maiden.

Kumble opened for Bangalore with a tight over, conceding only four runs. But his effort was undone in the next two – bowled by R Vinay Kumar and Praveen Kumar – that went for 28 runs. Hayden looked to mess up the fast bowlers’ lines by repeatedly stepping out and swatting to the ball for boundaries over the fielders. He pulled, flicked and drove Vinay for fours; hammered a short and wide delivery from Praveen over extra cover for four before pulling him for a flat six off a delivery pitched outside off.

Kallis’ entry into the attack gave Bangalore some respite from the manic hitting. After playing out two dot balls, M Vijay tried to hook a short one but could not get enough of the bat on it and was caught by Robin Uthappa at fine leg. Kallis then bowled three consecutive short balls to the new batsman Suresh Raina, who fended off the first one, defended the next and played and missed the final. He eventually also fell to the short ball but not before hitting two successive fours off Praveen and cutting Kallis for another four. He had scored 13 off nine balls when Kallis once again dug it short, this time on leg stump, into Raina’s body. Raina hopped on his toes and pushed the ball away from his body to a diving Roelof van der Merwe at midwicket.

Chennai had scored 52 in the Powerplay overs, and Hayden and MS Dhoni added 20 more in the next four over as Kumble, Kallis and van der Merwe kept it tight. Kallis bowled his quota on the trot and finished with 4-1-18-2. He mixed the shorter balls with fuller deliveries and used a short leg to keep Dhoni quiet.

Even so, Dhoni and Hayden kept the run-rate over six an over. Dhoni picked the singles and Hayden the boundaries. He reached his fifty with a clever reverse-paddle to third man.

It began to unravel when Dhoni fell, trying to go for a big shot, as van der Merwe pulled off a stunning catch off his own bowling by diving to his wrong side. But the fall of wickets hadn’t affected Hayden’s batting one bit: he launched van der Merwe for a six over his head one ball after Dhoni’s wicket. But he fell in the next over by Kumble, when he mistimed a pull and was caught by at the boundary by Vinay Kumar. After that the other bowlers joined in tightening that noose: van der Merwe conceded three in his final over, B Akhil 2 off his first, Vinay Kumar and Praveen picked up a wicket each, while Kumble ended S Badrinath’s agonising nine-ball 2.

Bangalore need to win this game to stay in contention for the semis and their bowlers gave them the edge they needed.

Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at Cricinfo

Bangalore Royal Challengers 176 for 4 (Taylor 81*, Kartik 2-28) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 173 for 4 (McCullum 84*, Hussey 43, Vinay Kumar 2-33) by six wickets…

Bangalore Royal Challengers, buoyed by Ross Taylor’s return to form, overcame a formidable target set by Kolkata Knight Riders to boost their chances of making the top four, winning by six wickets in a tense encounter in Centurion. Brendon McCullum’s determined innings was in vain, as Taylor marked a timely comeback, feasting on some shoddy bowling by the seamers at the death, to inflict yet another disappointment on Kolkata, who squandered the edge they had held for most of the game.

Taylor and Jesse Ryder were Bangalore’s key batsmen ahead of the season, and their failure, along with Kevin Pietersen’s poor performance, had proved embarrassing. Taylor, though, redeemed himself, remaining unfazed by the loss of three quick wickets to time Bangalore’s chase to perfection, carting five sixes and seven fours in a brutal assault that overshadowed Kolkata’s admirable batting display.

Bangalore were on course in pursuit of 174, led by a solid opening stand of 58 between Jacques Kallis and Ryder. Neither of the two was excessively dominating, but combined their ability to punish bad balls with intermittent displays of improvisation when the situation demanded it. Kallis survived an early chance, when Ajantha Mendis ran too far in from third man, failing to snap an upper-cut, but two half-volleys from Ajit Agarkar were lofted for a six and four the very next over. Ryder looked fluent, in contrast to his terrible form in the early phase of the tournament, pulling Ishant Sharma before dispatching two full tosses over mid-off.

The difference in strategy adopted by both teams was evident before the tactical time-out in each innings, with Kolkata sticking to the tested method of shuffling the attack, using as many as six bowlers in the first eight overs – Bangalore had used three. The spin of Ajantha Mendis and David Hussey was countered well, but a stupendous piece of fielding from McCullum, who flung himself to his left to snap Kallis put an end to the threatening stand. When Ryder sliced Agarkar straight to third man in the next over, and Robin Uthappa slogged one to deep midwicket right after the time-out, Bangalore had lost three in three overs to concede the advantage.

Barring McCullum’s acrobatic effort, Kolkata were, yet again, poor in the field, missing attempts to run out both Taylor and Rahul Dravid, giving one a chance to regain some much-needed form, and the other to play the supporting role with flair. The game began to slip from Kolkata’s grasp when Taylor spoilt Murali Kartik’s figures with two sixes in his final over. The talking point for Kolkata has been the puzzling absence of Mashrafe Mortaza and the experienced Charl Langeveldt. The travails of Angelo Matthews – who was struck for three fours in an over by Taylor – provided more fodder for criticism.

With 55 needed off 30, and seven wickets in hand, Bangalore held the cards but Dravid’s scoop back to Mendis in a miserly 16th over added another twist to the see-saw game. Taylor, though, was unflustered, smacking two fours off Ajit Agarkar to reach his half-century, and combined with Mark Boucher, who pulled a no-ball for six, to take 19 off Ishant’s final over.

Agarkar’s reliability at the death has been questionable throughout his career and he failed his team, gifting two full-tosses to Taylor in the penultimate over, one smashed over midwicket and the other over long-on. The Bangalore batsmen were fed with full-length balls, which they promptly dealt with, proving decisive in the outcome. Mathews provided the fitting end, delivering another full toss, symbolically dismissed by Taylor for six over square leg to end the game and keep his team in the running for a semi-final berth.

Taylor’s blitz spoilt an excellent innings from Kolkata’s struggling captain, who fought through a patchy phase to take a backseat to the aggressive Hussey, and then changed gears following the Australian’s dismissal to hand his team its most satisfying batting performance of the season. The burden of captaincy had proved too hard to bear for McCullum, and had affected his own performance adversely. He remained guarded for much of his innings, after he lost Sourav Ganguly and Arindam Ghosh early on, providing a glimpse of his more conventional side to batting, compared to the raw aggression that has typified his style. The boundaries kept coming, mostly of Hussey’s bat, but the feature of the partnership, apart from the two contrasting approaches by each batsman, was the wave of singles and twos that avoided any dip in scoring despite the two early setbacks.

The roles changed once Mathews, the Sri Lankan allrounder, walked in. McCullum switched to his natural mode of play, stepping out to dispatch Kumble, and smashing Akhil for two sixes, bringing up his first fifty in ten innings. The cherry was a burst of three successive fours – two paddle-scoops and one contemptuous pull – off R Vinay Kumar which took his team to a competitive score.

Kolkata, despite being knocked out, still have a significant role to play as their remaining games could well determine who finishes in the final four. However, their tendency to lose, even from winning positions, reinforced their unfortunate status as the tournament’s punching bag.

Siddhartha Talya is an editorial assistant at Cricinfo