Battle Royal won by Bangalore

The battle of the royals ended with the Royals from Bangalore scoring a comprehensive win over Rajasthan Royals by five wickets at Sawai Mansingh stadium here tonight.

The Rajasthan team seemed to have taken the field feeling blue and never looked as if they had recovered from their loss to the Mumbai Indians. The RCB bowlers dominated the initial proceeding and then Kevin Pietersen took over from where they left, giving fans another chance to witness his flair.

Royal Challengers Bangalore started the chase aware that a smallish target could be tricky and despite losing Jacques Kallis early never looked in trouble.

Kevin Pietersen, in the playing XI in place of the hard-hitting Cameron White, justified his inclusion with a sublime and chanceless half-century. His innings was an exhibition of timing so exquisite that the fielders could just stand still and look on in anguish as the boundaries were scored around them. His straight six off Shane Warne in the 11th over was a perfect example of his complete domination over the Rajasthan bowling.

Robin Uthappa (26) hit the ball crisply during his stay at the crease and seemed as if he, along with Pietersen, would finish off the game. But he got out early playing an overambitious reverse sweep against the wily Shane Warne.

As long as Pietersen was there in the middle, the pitch looked good and the RCB plan on course. Pietersen (62) ultimately did get out in the only way he could tonight - a run-out thanks to a silly mix-up with Virat Kohli that earned KP’s ire.

But Ross Taylor saw the team through hitting a six to finish off the game.

Earlier, Shane Warne’s decision to bat first went horribly wrong with the hosts losing three wickets inside the first three overs.

First Michael Lumb was run out after an awful mix-up with his opening partner Naman Ojha. Amit Paunikar, described by Warne as an Arvinda De Silva sort of player, didn’t get much of a chance with Kumble’s man Friday Vinay Kumar getting the debutant out for a golden duck. Ojha didn’t have time to make up for his mistake with Lumb – RCB’s debutant pacer Pankaj Singh snared the dangerous batsman.
javascript:void(0)
The visitors’ disciplined bowling attack never allowed the Rajasthan team to get any kind of momentum and kept getting wickets at regular intervals. Shane Watson was just starting to time the ball when Kevin Pietersen took a splendid catch to stub Rajasthan chance of a good total.

And when Dale Steyn disturbed Yusuf Pathan’s timber, it looked as if Rajasthan were in danger of repeating their March 18 performance against Royal Challengers when they were all out for 92.

But an unbeaten 58-run partnership between Adam Voges (28) and Abhishek Raut (30) saw the hosts put up 130 for the visitors to chase.