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What a difference a week makes. Last Sunday, Royal Challengers Bangalore were at the bottom of the table, had slumped to their fourth consecutive defeat, and were looking ahead to surviving without two key batsmen, Rahul Dravid and Kevin Pietersen. Now, after a thoroughly dominant performance against Mumbai Indians they are jostling for a share of the top spot. The reversal of fortunes was illustrated by the two men who blunted the powerful Mumbai bowling, Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa, who shrugged off their forgettable starts to the tournament with superbly paced half-centuries.

The star of the first half for Bangalore was little-known South African allrounder Dillon du Preez who had an IPL debut to tell the grandkids about, taking three early wickets with his medium-pacers. a resilient Mumbai showed why they are among the favourites for the title; Sanath Jaysuriya started the recovery before Dwayne Bravo and Abhishek Nayar slammed 48 runs off the last three overs to lift their side to what-had-seemed a competitive total.

Full report to follow

20 overs Mumbai Indians 149 for 4 (Jayasuriya 52, Bravo 50*, du Preez 3-32) against Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore pulled a rabbit out of the hat by picking little-known South African allrounder Dillon du Preez, who ripped through the Mumbai Indians top order with his medium-pacers. However, a resilient Mumbai showed why they are among the favourites for the title; Sanath Jaysuriya started the recovery before Dwayne Bravo and Abhishek Nayar slammed 48 runs off the last three overs to lift their side to a competitive total.

du Preez started off with that rarest of beasts in Twenty20s – the double-wicket maiden, and it included the scalp of Sachin Tendulkar. Handed the ball in the fourth over there were a quiet couple of balls before he induced an outside edge off Tendulkar to the safe hands of Rahul Dravid at slip, to spark wild celebrations. The hint of away movement in the next delivery had Ajinkya Rahane giving catching practice to slip. JP Duminy, already a regular at firefighting in his short IPL career, walked in on the hat-trick delivery and shouldered arms which rapped his pads, but was saved by the height.

The Boys’ Own story continued for du Preez in his next over, with his first poor delivery also fetching him a wicket; Duminy went for an ill-advised pull to a long hop angling away from him, only under-edging it to the wicketkeeper. du Preez’s figures were a scarcely believable 1.2-1-0-3, and Mumbai were gasping at 23 for 3.

They would have been in a bigger hole still had Roelof van der Merwe spotted a mishit from Jayasuriya early while fielding at midwicket in the fifth over. Jayasuriya capitalised on the reprieve, and began reviving Mumbai with a steady partnership with Bravo. After a watchful beginning – he was on 11 off 20 at one stage – he broke free in the eighth over, muscling a fractionally short ball over mid-on’s head, and then hammering the next delivery into the crowd behind midwicket. There were also the Jayasuriya trademarks, powerful slaps over point and some nimble running between the wickets. Despite all that, Mumbai reached the strategic time-out at a unsatisfactory 53 for 3.

Spin had been Bangalore trump card in the past couple of games, but it wasn’t introduced till the 11th over today. Jayasuriya used the sweep effectively against the slow bowlers, and a couple of fours off Anil Kumble took him to 50. However, he fell soon after, off the first ball from van der Merwe, swatting straight to midwicket.

Bravo was following the Jayasuriya method of taking his time to gauge the pitch. There were some stylish flicks, and deft dabs to third man but it wasn’t till the 18th over – 12 overs after he came in – that he hit his first boundary.

Bangalore would have been happy with Mumbai’s 101 for 4 after 17, but Bravo and Nayar launched a late blitz. There were two fours off Vinay Kumar, before Bravo struck consecutive sixes off van der Merwe. The momentum was clearly with Mumbai, and the final over started off with two fours from Nayar. What was to be the last ball of the innings illustrated how things fell apart for Bangalore – Nayar missed a sweep off du Preez, and the batsmen set off for a non-existent single, the bowler had plenty of time to throw down the stumps from a few yards, but missed giving away overthrows. What’s more, he had overstepped while delivering.
Source:Cricket News

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