Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Pune Warriors – IPL4: Match Recap
In the 35th match of the ongoing fourth season of the IPL (Indian Premier League), the Royal Challengers Bangalore have defeated Pune Warriors by 26 runs in a game that was played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.
After winning the toss, Yuvraj Singh, the skipper of Pune Warriors, decided to field first in a bid to get the opposition bowled out on a meagre total. However, the reinforced opening pair of Bangalore with the inclusion of Chris Gayle, proved a bit too
hot to handle for the Warriors as both Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan gave a 57 run opening stand. The two displayed some of the finest stroke playing techniques in the book.
Dilshan was the first to leave as he was bowled on a superb delivery by Rahul Sharma which rammed right into the stumps of the Royal Challengers’ batsman. An over later Gayle was trapped in front of his stumps by Sharma, causing him to be adjudged leg-before
wicket (lbw). He had played a phenomenal innings of 49 runs which included four boundaries and four sixes.
After the openers, the middle order batsmen, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887 took it upon themselves to make the lives of the Pune bowlers a living h**l as both toyed with the nerves of the bowlers by hitting every side of the field.
Kohli seems to be getting better and better after every game, while De Villiers also showed some finesse with the bat. The two put up 66 runs in the third wicket partnership. The partnership was finally broken by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Alfonso-Thomas-c991 who threw a full toss delivery
at de Villiers. The delivery was just too tempting for the batsman and he went for a shot which landed straight in the hands of Sharma at long-on. De Villiers had scored 26 runs off 20 deliveries.
Kohli’s innings was also brought to an end by Thomas as the batsman was caught by Harpreet Singh. The middle order batsman played a brilliant innings of 67 runs off 42 deliveries. In the end the Bangalore made a daunting total of 181 runs on the board for
the Warriors to chase.
Coming out to bat, Pune knew very well that they had a tough task ahead of them and in order to avoid their fifth consecutive defeat their batsmen had to bat really well to clinch a victory from a tough position.
However, the opening partnership failed to deliver as Tim Paine gave a sharp catch to Daniel Vettori at short fine leg off a delivery by Sreenath Aravinda.
It was then up to opener Jesse Ryder and one down batsman, Manish Pandey, to get things going as both displayed some excellent batting. However, this partnership could not flourish as Ryder gave a catch to Mohammad Kaif at deep midwicket off a delivery bowled
by Syed Mohammad. Ryder had scored 51 runs off 34 deliveries.
Skipper Yuvraj Singh and Pandey then took matters into their own hands and tried to build a dangerous partnership. Unfortunately, Pandey ran out of patience in the 14th over and hit a shot straight into the hands of Saurabh Tiwary at long-off
on a delivery bowled by Daniel Vettori. Pandey had scored 19 runs off 23 deliveries.
The target was now becoming a tough task for the Warriors and it was all up to Yuvraj Singh to take his side ahead of the target. Ironically, on the last delivery of the 17th over Zaheer Khan removed Singh as the batsman hit a shot straight to
Syed Mohammad.
After this it was all over for the Warriors as the team succumbed after scoring 155 runs. Yuvraj Singh and the team management has some serious thinking to do in order to identify the mistakes they have made so far in the tournament and hopefully make some
positive changes.
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