Friday, 15 May 2009

Ross Taylor made a valiant 46, his second straight man-of-the-match effort, as Royal Challengers Bangalore edged past Chennai Super Kings by two wickets in their Indian Premier League match at Kingsmead, Durban on Thursday.

Chasing a moderate 130 to win, Bangalore made a mess of the chase, almost lost the match before finally managing to scrape through with two balls to spare.

If Taylor's unbeaten 81 in the win against Kolkata was the innings from an invader, on this occasion he played like a native.

His resilient knock came of 50 balls and consisted of only two boundaries and a six. And though he got out in the final over, he had done enough to ensure his team win their second match on the trot.

Bangalore's terrific win over Kolkata at Centurion, coming on the heels of two successive defeats against Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians respectively, had given them ample confidence and it translated into a performance, a win that lifted them up to fourth place with 12 points.

Earlier good bowling, particularly by Anil Kumble (4-0-12-2) and Jacques Kallis (4-1-18-2), coupled with some excellent work in the field helped RCB restrict CSK to a modest 129.

Matthew Hayden , with 60 of just 38 balls (5x4, 3x6), was the lone Chennai batsman to make any significant contribution to his side's cause, his innings taking his tournament aggregate to 486 from 10 matches. The orange cap isn't changing heads any time soon.

Going into the match, Chennai was bursting with confidence after five straight wins (they remain second), over opponents as dangerous as Delhi Daredevils , Rajasthan Royals (twice) and Deccan Chargers.

And they had outclassed Bangalore by 92 runs when the two sides met in Port Elizabeth, the largest margin of victory in the tournament so far.

An encore didn't happen though.

Source: Cricket.rediff.com