Jacques Kallis last night carried his bat through the innings for the fourth consecutive time to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore to their third successive win in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season. Kallis, who had unbeaten knocks of 65, 89 and 44 prior to yesterday's away game, added 66 runs to his credit as Bangalore overhauled Mumbai Indians' score of 151 for nine in the 20th over to win by seven wickets.
Bangalore have, as a result, gone on top of the IPL table with six points from four games after having lost their opener to the Kolkata Knight Riders. Kallis was ably assisted in the run chase by his opening partner, Manish Pandey (40), Robin Uthappa (23), Virat Kohli (17) and Eoin Morgan (seven not out). But the heroes of the night were the two Bangalore fast bowlers, Dale Steyn (three for 26) and R Vinay Kumar (three for 25) as Mumbai were struggling at one point at 76 for six.
Steyn set the tempo for his team by trapping Sanath Jayasuriya leg before wicket, but Vinay broke the back of the hosts' line-up by dismissing the captain, Sachin Tendulkar and the form players, Ambati Rayudu and Dwayne Bravo. Several of Mumbai's batsmen managed to reach double figures but no player went past 25 on a wicket that had marginal assistance for the seam bowlers. Earlier in the day, the Rajasthan Royals got their title hopes back on track with their first win in four IPL matches.
Shane Warne's decision to bat first and then start the bowling with Yusuf Pathan paid off when the man who is better known for his destructive batting removed both Kolkata Knight Riders' openers en route to Rajasthan's 34-run victory in Ahmedabad. The Royals made a respectable 168 for the loss of seven wickets in their 20 overs, and then Pathan hit the stumps twice on his way to figures of two for 23 from his four overs. He struck in his second over by removing Manoj Tiwary for 11 and uprooted Brad Hodge's middle stump in his second spell after the batsman had made 36 off 34 balls to leave Kolkata on 95 for three from 14.1 overs.
The captain, Sourav Ganguly (33 from 29 balls), and Owais Shah, who hit two sixes in his 17-ball 19 not out, tried to resurrect the inning but it was too little and came too late for Kolkata. They eventually ran out of overs at only 134 for five. Pathan said: "The plan was for me to open the bowling and it worked well for us on the night. I think everyone batted well to get a decent score on the board on a slow wicket.
"Now we have broken the duck and hopefully can get this momentum going." The Kolkata batsmen did not help their cause in chasing while trying to preserve their wickets, and Hodge was largely to blame with an insipid knock of just better than a run a ball. They also had Owais Shah and Angelo Mathews, who are more renowned for their hitting, coming late down the order. Rajasthan had got off to a bad start in their innings when Ashok Dinda trapped Michael Lumb leg before with the first delivery of the match, but the rest of the top order chipped in with useful contributions.
Naman Ojha (27 off 18 balls) and Faiz Fazal (31 off 23) took the score to 42 in five overs. The man of the match, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, batting at No 4, made a top score of 45 from 36 deliveries and Adam Voges contributed a 22-ball 37 not out with a couple of sixes and fours to ensure the Royals had the sort of score Warne had predicted after winning the toss. apassela@thenational.ae
Mumbai Indians: Sanath Jayasuriya lbw b Steyn 2 Sachin Tendulkar b Vinay Kumar 25 Aditya Tare c Pandey b Kallis 9 Saurabh Tiwary b Kumble 25 Ambati Rayudu c Boucher b Vinay Kumar 3 Dwayne Bravo lbw b Vinay Kumar 1 R. Sathish c Dravid b Steyn 24 Keiron Pollard c Kohli b Steyn 21 Harbhajan Singh c Kallis b Kumar 4 Zaheer Khan not out 23 Lasith Malinga not out 0 Extras (lb 10, w 4) 14 Total (for nine wickets in 20 overs) 151 Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-36, 3-71, 4-74, 5-75, 6-76, 7-123, 8-125, 9-135 Bowling: Parveen Kumar 4-0-37-1 Dale Steyn 4-0-26-3 Jacques Kallis 4-0-35-1 R. Vinay Kumar 4-0-25-3 Anil Kumble 4-0-18-1 Royal Challengers Bangalore: Manish Pandey c Pollard b Harbhajan 40 Jacques Kallis not out 66 Robin Uthappa c Malinga b Khan 23 Virat Kohli run out (Pollard) 17 Eoin Morgan not out 7 Extras (b 1, lb 1) 2 Total (for three wickets in 19.1 overs) 155 Fall of wickets: 1-85, 2-116, 3-136 Bowling: Zaheer Khan 4-0-18-1 Lasith Malinga 4-0-25-0 Dwayne Bravo 3.1-0-35-0 Keiron Pollard 2-0-24-0 Harbhajan Singh 4-0-35-1 Sanath Jayasuriya 2-0-16-0
Rajasthan Royals: Michael Lumb lbw b Dinda 0 Naman Ojha run out (Mathews/Kartik) 27 Faiz Fazal c Pujara b Bond 31 Abhishek Jhunjhunwala c Ganguly b Sharma 45 Yusuf Pathan c Hodge b Dinda 15 Adam Voges not out 37 Paras Dogra c Saha b Sharma 0 Shane Warne c Tiwary b Bond 1 Munaf Patel not out 4 Extras: (b-1, lb-4, w-3) 8 Total: (for seven wickets in 20 overs) 168 Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-42, 3-72, 4-105, 5-142, 6-143, 7-146 Bowling; Ashok Dinda 4-0-28-2 Ishant Sharma 4-0-33-2 Shane Bond 4-0-32-2 Angelo Mathews 3-0-33-0 Murali Kartik 4-0-25-0 Brad Hodge 1-0-12-0 Kolkata Knight Riders: Manoj Tiwary b Pathan 11 Brad Hodge b Pathan 36 Cheteshwar Pujara b Trivedi 29 Sourav Ganguly c Voges b Patel 33 Owais Shah not out 19 Angelo Mathews run out (sub AS Raut) 0 Wriddhiman Saha not out 1 Extras: (lb 4, w 1) 5 Total (for five wickets in 20 overs) 134 Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-68, 3-95, 4-132, 5-132 Bowling; Yusuf Pathan 4-0-23-2 Shaun Tait 4-0-29-0 Munaf Patel 3-0-20-1 Siddharth Trivedi 4-0-26-1 Adam Voges 1-0-5-0 Shane Warne 4-0-27-0