At last some good times for The Royal Challengers

Kumble and Steyn takes Banglore home!

Bangalore Royal Challengers, placed at the bottom of the Indian Premier League (IPL) points tally, pulled off a stunning 14-run win against hot favourites Chennai Super Kings here Wednesday night.

Earlier, Royal Challengers, who won the toss and decided to bat first, could score only a paltry 126 for eight in 20 overs. In reply, Super Kings wasted a good start and threw away their wickets to end up at 112 for eight.

The Royal Challengers, out of contention for a semi-final berth, put forth yet another poor performance with the bat as their innings progressed at the snail’s pace with Super Kings bowlers giving little away.

The batting line-up never really recovered from the disastrous start and worse was to follow as Virat Kohli fell for 10, lofting Muttiah Muralitharan to deep mid-wicket where Morkel took a brilliant, tumbling catch.

Only late in the innings did the run-rate pick up as Dravid (47, 39b, 5×4) and Praveen (21, 11b, 1×6, 2×4) played some attacking shots to save the blushes.

Anil Kumble’s 3-14 and Dale Steyn’s 2-28, the twin strikes in the 14th and 16th over, enabled Bangalore Royal Challengers to defeat Chennai Super Kings.

Gony was pick of the Super Kings bowlers with a spell of 4-1-11-2 as he dismissed both openers, Kallis (5) and Sreevats Goswami (10) in his second and fourth overs.

The defeat at the M A Chidambaram Stadium meant that Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men, with 14 points from 12 matches, will have to wait further to book their semifinal berth.

The scores:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: J. Kallis c Fleming b Gony 5, S. Goswami c Patel b Gony 10, V. Kohli c Morkel b Muralitharan 10, R. Dravid c Dhoni b Morkel 47, Misbah c Parthiv b Balaji 4, M. Boucher lbw b Morkel 17, B. Akhil (not out) 6, P. Kumar b Morkel 21, V. Kumar b Morkel 0, A. Kumble (not out) 2, Extras (lb-3, w-1): 4; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 126.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-22, 3-33, 4-41, 5-76, 6-97, 7-124, 8-124.

Chennai Super Kings bowling: Ntini 4-0-27-0, Gony 4-1-11-2, Muralitharan 4-0-19-1, Balaji 4-0-34-1, A. Morkel 4-0-32-4.

Chennai Super Kings: P. Patel c & b Kumble 24; S. Fleming c Akhil b Kumble 45; M.S. Dhoni c Kumble b Vinay Kumar 4; S. Raina (not out) 21; S. Badrinath lbw Kumble 1; A. Morkel c V. Kumar b Steyn 1; S. Vidyut c Kallis b Steyn 0; M. Gony c Steyn b P. Kumar 4; L. Balaji (run out) 0; M. Ntini (not out) 0; Extras (lb-2, w-8, nb-2) 12; Total (for eight wkts in 20 overs) 112.

Fall of wickets: 1-60, 2-65, 3-85, 4-87, 5-93, 6-93, 7-108, 8-110.

Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling: Steyn 4-0-28-2; P. Kumar 4-0-26-1, Kumble 4-0-14-3; Kallis 4-0-15-0; V. Kumar 3-0-23-1, Akhil 1-0-4-0.