Sports Pundit
Cricket

Kallis all-round display gives Bangalore a win

The Rajasthan Royals were off to a slow but a steady start through their two new openers, Naman Ojha and Michael Lumb.

The Rajasthan Royals were off to a slow but a steady start through their two new openers, Naman Ojha and Michael Lumb. The first five overs saw them score only 27, but most importantly, they had not lost a wicket in that time, and it meant that the Royals were thinking of taking that move up in the run-rate. A Hat-trick for Kumar!>

Unfortunately, it was the start of the sixth over which saw the slide for the side. Jacques Kallis was introduced into the attack and he stuck off the very first ball of his spell when Ojha tried to cut him away but only managed to provide a simple catch to Robin Uthappa. Three wickets for nine runs>

That was the start of the decline for the side, as Anil Kumble also stuck in his first over and Kallis dismissed Jhunjhunwala in the 8th over to have them reduced to 38/3.

Yusuf Pathan was Rajasthan’s last hope, and he struggled through for the first 13 balls before smacking two sixes off the next two. He was then dropped twice, before the strategy break was taken, post which, he was run-out by Kohli. The rest of them added only 17 runs and lost six wickets, including allowing Praveen Kumar to get away with a hat-trick.

He became only the seventh bowler in the history of the IPL to get a hat-trick, after Laxmipathy Balaji, Amit Mishra, Makhaya Ntini, Yuvraj (twice) and Rohit Sharma.

Chasing 93 for a win, the Bangalore openers were off to an excellent start, and kept smashing the ball to all parks. Of course, with the aggressive fielding positions that there were, the batsmen kept taking the advantage and off the first six overs, Bangalore ere 59/0 in the first six overs.

Even after the six over mark, the Bangalore side gave away no respite to the Rajasthan side and completed the win in the 11th over. Pandey remained unbeaten on 42 and Kallis continued his batting streak with a 44 not-out. Both remained unseparated, and led the side to a ten-wicket win.