The Royal Challengers Bangalore brought a winning end to their IPL 2010 campaign by outplaying the Deccan Chargers in the third position play-off encounter to secure an entry into the Champions League tournament. The Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings, being the finalists this season, have already qualified for the same.
The crucial match between the last year’s finalists saw the defending champions, Deccan Chargers, completely bowing out before the Challengers, thereby putting an end to their Champions League aspirations. It came off as a batting debacle for the Chargers who managed to put up a tiny score of 82-all out in 18.3 overs.
Adam Gilchrist, yet again failed to fire with his bat and, departed back to his team dug-out after scoring just 4 runs in the very first over of the clash at the hands of Anil Kumble. Praveen Kumar, in his impressive spell, dismissed both Monish Mishra and Rohit Sharma for a duck in his next two overs which brought the Deccan Chargers under huge pressure.
Andrew Symonds(2) and Dwayne Smith(5) failed to resurrect the Deccan innings which languished at a score of 35 for 5 in the ninth over. However, Anirudh Singh and Venugopal Rao did try to revive their strangulated side. Anirudh managed a 40 off 39 balls before falling prey to Jaques Kallis while Venugopal added 24 runs from 27 balls.
Kumble and Kallis finally wrapped up the Chargers by taking the wickets of Rahul Sharma, Harris and Pragyan Ojha in quick succession.
Bangalore bowlers put up a splendid performance with skipper Anil Kumble took 4-16; Praveen Kumar got 2-18 while Jacques Kallis snatched 2-3 bringing the smell of victory closer to their camp. Anil Kumble was declared the Man of the Match for his superb bowling spell.
Thumping a nine wicket win in just 13.5 overs, the Royal Challengers were led to victory by Kevin Pietersen who remained unbeaten at 29 runs from 21 balls along with Rahul Dravid who scored 35 off 30 balls after Jacques Kallis handed his wicket to leg-spinner Rahul Sharma at a score of 19 runs.
The DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, which stood host to the play-off third place match, shall witness the interesting grand finale encounter for the IPL 2010 crown between the Sachin-led Mumbai Indians and the MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings on Sunday.
Author: Meenal Johari (Agra)
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