Royal win for Challengers by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

---

Scorecard:	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Mumbai Indians
Player:	ST Jayasuriya, DJ Bravo, JH Kallis, RV Uthappa, D du Preez
Event:	Indian Premier League 2009

---

DateLine: 3rd May 2009

 

Classy Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa steered Bangalore Royal Challengers to a comfortable nine-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians with 11 balls to spare.

 

Kallis began with a bang, hitting Malinga for two sixes in his very first over. He then settled down and began playing the sheet anchor's role, leaving the role of the aggressor to Uthappa. The duo added 126 runs in 12.1 overs at more than 10 runs per over.

 

Uthappa was slow to start off. Him settling down was necessary considering that he has been terribly out of form off late and needed some time to find his feet moving. Once he settled down, he began carting the Mumbai bowling.

 

His knock was studded with eight boundaries and two huge sixes. He took three boundaries off one over from Mumbai skipper Sachin Tendulkar.

 

The only casualty for the Bangalore side was Wasim Jaffer (7), who came in to open with Kallis and fell to Zaheer Khan after he failed to keep a flick down and Abhishek Nayar took an easy one at mid-wicket.

 

Earlier, Tendulkar won the toss and without any hesitation decided to bat first. Aided by fifties from the willows of swashbuckling opener Sanath Jayasuriya and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, Mumbai went on to post a competitive 149 in their alloted 20 overs.

 

The Mumbai outfit was rocked in the fourth over of the match when IPL debutant Dillon du Preez gave Bangalore a dream start as he sent back both Tendulkar and Ajinkya Rahane in consecutive balls. His debut over was more like a dream, as this was a rarest of a rare thing in the twenty over format, a double-wicket maiden.

 

In his very next over, he also took the prized wicket of JP Duminy after the Protean was stirred by a flurry of bouncers by his fellow South African mate Jacques Kallis. The wicket pushed the Mumbai team further on the backfoot.

 

It was then up to Sanath Jayasuriya to bail the team out of trouble, and he did his best to battle it out in the middle for some time, before falling for a well-made 52 off 43 balls. He was scalped by left arm-spinner Roelof van der Merwe in the very first ball of his spell.

 

Dwayne Bravo and Nayar then struggled hard against some tight bowling by the Royal Challengers. They though successfully increased the run-rate in the death overs to take their team to a competitive total. The duo added 48 runs in the last three overs. Bravo especially was ruthless in the closing stages and in the 19th over bowled by Van der Merwe, he hit a couple of sixes and provided the innings the much needed impetus.

 

This win has opened up the tournament no ends. A week back the Vijay Mallya's side was lurking at the bottom of the table having lost four consecutive games but three consecutive wins in a week have made them a contender of the top spot.