It was a must-win game for the local team, Bangalore Royal Challengers, and it was the senior pro, Jacques Kallis who ensured that the Vijay Mallya owned side would safely ensure its passage to the next round.
An unbeaten 59 ball 73 from him, useful contributions from Robin Uthappa and Virat Kohli and some characteristic late order lusty hitting from Ross Taylor helped the local team post an imposing 188/2. Otago never really looked to even get close to the total as Kallis’s 3 wicket spell along with the other experienced pro, Anil Kumble’s accurate spin bowling skittled the opposition for 108. Bangalore thereby winning the contest by 80 runs and marching their way into the Super Eights joining Cape Cobras from their group.
The Bangalore innings was set up by the aggressive hitting of Robin Uthappa with Kallis giving him good company. Despite struggling with a rib injury, the South African batsman manfully carried on as Uthappa was scoring runs at will.
After Uthappa got out, Kohli joined Kallis and his 19 ball 32 helped the side maintain the good work done by the opening pair. The Otago bowlers wouldn’t get another wicket after that as Ross Taylor who walked on the pitch after Kohli got out seemed to be in his typical murderous mood. The crowd greeted him with loud cheers as he went out to bat and the Kiwi did not disappoint them. 52 runs were tonked off the last 3 overs with the final over from McSkimming going for 25 that included 3 massive 6s. Kallis contributed with his own share of maximums in the final few overs as the Challengers posted a huge score for the 2nd match running.
Otago needed their big gun Bredon McCullum to fire so that they could atleast have a sniff of a chance. Unfortunately for them, he got out in the 4th over of the innings giving Kallis his 1st of 3 wickets.
Kallis got another one dismissed in the same over as Aaron Redmond gave an easy catch to Uthappa with the score read 10/2 then. Chasing at nearly 10 runs an over was never going to be an easy task and with wickets falling at regular periods, the final result of the match was never in question. Kumble and van der Merve’s excellent spell of spin bowling exposed the batsmen’s lack of skill in playing quality slow bowling as the team was eventually dismissed for a paltry 108.
For his fine allround performance, Kallis was named the ‘Man of the Match’. Bangalore thus ensured that atleast one IPL team would move into the next round albeit they wont be carrying any points there.