Royal Challengers ensure Daredevils’ exit

By Tanmay S
for Cricketain.com

Published: October 19, 2009

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M Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore: With their fate already decided in the Airtel Champions League, the Bangalore Royal Challengers crushed the Delhi Daredevils by 8 wickets and ensured that no IPL team will make it to the semi finals of the tournament. In reality, none of the IPL teams deserved a place in the semis. Ross Taylor starred in the game as he hammered the Delhi bowlers around the ground scoring 65 off 38 deliveries, hitting four sixes and six fours.

Earlier during the day, Cape Cobras defeated Victoria by 8 wickets which ensured that Bangalore Royal Challengers were ousted from the tournament on account of a poor run rate. The game was meaningless for the Challengers as far as their chances of entering semi-finals were concerned. Contrastingly, Delhi Daredevils found themselves in a do-or-die situation as they required winning both their games, against and Challengers and the Cape Cobras. With their loss against Challengers, Daredevils exited the Airtel Champions League T20.

The Royal Challengers won the toss and elected to field, paying respect to the changing pitch conditions. An experienced Anil Kumble knew that the track would slow down eventually.

For the Delhi Daredevils, Gambhir and Sehwag opened the innings. The due held the promise of their trademark firework style batting, but only partly delivered. Gambhir played a slow innings while Sehwag punished the bowlers. Sehwag indeed gave Delhi early momentum as he scored a quick 47 from 29 deliveries, hitting six fours and a six. But the party didn’t last long as Gambhir was caught by Boucher off Steyn for 11 and Sehwag was caught by Pandey off van der Merwe.

Thereafter the Delhi innings slumped and the scoring rate dropped, as wickets fell at regular intervals. Karthik departed for only 2 as he succumbed to a straight delivery from Kumble, the birthday boy. With no other big score from the rest of the batting line up, Delhi Daredevils had to settle for a non challenging score of 138 in 20 overs. For the Royal Challengers, Anil Kumble claimed 3 wickets conceding a meagre 20 runs from four overs.

Overall, it looked as if both teams competed for worst fielding performance… and Delhi won the race.

Bangalore Royal Challengers had an unspectacular start as they lost their first wicket on 15 in the form of Uthappa, who unsuccessfully pulled a Nannes delivery and was caught by Mishra. Before Uthappa departed, Pandey was declared retired hurt due a muscle pull. After the fall of early wickets, Rahul Dravid provided stability to the innings and he was joined by Ross Taylor, the player of the match. The duo laid the foundation for a comprehensive win by putting together a massive 93 run partnership for the 2nd wicket and took the score to 108 in 13 overs. Challengers had pocketed the game by then.

Ross Taylor player a spectacular innings and entertained the home crowd. Taylor hammered Glenn McGrath for three boundaries in this opening over and set the tone for his batting, however he fumbled to some short length deliveries from Nannes. Delhi Daredevils could have put an end to Taylor’s heroics a couple of times, but he was dropped in two consecutive overs. Ashish Nehra seemed to be hell bent on demonstrating his worst fielding performance as he dropped Taylor and generally fumbled on the outfield. The crowd cheered to every shot from Taylor, as he was their only entertainment in an otherwise pointless match, since the Challengers were already out of the trophy.

After Taylor’s departure, Virat Kohli continued his job. Kohli hammered 25 off just 10 deliveries. Dravid scored unbeaten 32 off 26 deliveries and along with Kohli, sealed the victory for Royal Challengers during the 16th over.

As for the performance of the IPL teams in their home country in the Airtel Champion’s league T20, it was utterly disappointing.

Brief Score: Royal Challengers Bangalore 139 for 2 (Ross Taylor 65, Rahul Dravid 32*) defeated Delhi Daredevils 138 for 6 (Sehwag 47, Kumble 3 for 20) by eight wickets

Player of the match: Ross Taylor of Bangalore Royal Challengers

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