It was Robin Uthappa all the way for the Royal Challengers Bangalore against the visiting Chennai Super Kings at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here. From a mediocre 119 for 5 in the 17th over to 171 in the allotted 20 overs, it was the lone hand played by Uthappa that took the Challengers to the imposing, and ultimately match-winning, score.
Royal Challengers’ win by 36 runs over CSK was their third successive win at home.
The injury-hit Chennai Super Kings were never in the race and with Matthew Hayden (32) getting run out early, there was no fight left in the CSK ranks. They surrendered to the disciplined bowling of Kumble and co. It was one of the most lopsided matches with CSK needing 48 of the last six balls. The Super Kings seem to be missing their talismanic captain MS Dhoni.
Vinay Kumar was again the leading wicket-taker for RCB with four scalps, but it was the skipper, Anil Kumble, whose four overs went for a mere 15 runs, who was the real hero with the ball.
Earlier, Uthappa led a charmed life, being dropped twice. First when he was on five and then 25. He made the best use of his lives, hitting the CSK bowling out of the park. The unbeaten 52-run partnership between Uthappa, 68* off 38 balls (4x3, 6x6), and Mark Boucher (11*) off just 19 balls helped RCB maintain their winning streak.
The Bangalore boy hit six sixes, including three consecutive ones off L Balaji in the 19th over. It was an exhibition of power-hitting the likes of which Bengaluru has not seen in this IPL.
CSK, who were till then in the game, having taken wickets at regular intervals, would feel hard done by their own fielding. They dropped catches galore, but still their bowlers managed to restrict the hosts. Balaji even had the privilege of claiming the wicket of hitherto unbeaten Jacques Kallis (19). Stand-in captain Suresh Raina was clueless as to how to stem the run flow and make his boys take those catches.
With this win RCB go to the top of the table and the Chennai team will continue to languish in the middle.
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