 Kumble bowls Bangalore Royal Challengers to victory
22nd May 2008 08:00 IST
Agencies
A Chennai Super Kings collapse triggered by Man of the Match Anil Kumble's brilliant spell of 3/14 helped Bangalore Royal Challengers secure a 14-run win, their first in six IPL matches, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai Wednesday night.
Chasing a modest target of 127 to win, the home team batsmen made a hash of the good start provided by openers Stephen Fleming and Parthiv Patel to manage only 112/8.
The defeat means that Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men, with 14 points from 12 matches, still face a battle to seal their place in the semis.
It was a shocking collapse to a chase that began on the right note with Fleming (45 off 40 balls) and Patel (24 off 29 balls) putting on 60 runs for the opening wicket after their bowlers had restricted the Challengers to 126/8.
The former New Zealand skipper was the dominant partner, hitting three crisp fours and two towering sixes in his knock.
At the other end, Patel also played some delightful shots - four of them being boundaries.
Kumble broke the partnership when the veteran leggie caught Patel off his own bowling.
Dhoni promoted himself up the order but did not last long as he fell to the caught-Kumble-bowled-Vinay Kumar combination after making just four.
Kumble then banked on his experience to bring the Royal Challengers right back into the game as he struck twice in his fourth and final over removing Fleming and Subramaniam Badrinath (1).
Lured by a delivery on the leg stump, Fleming went for a big shot but only succeeded in spooning a catch to Akhil Kumar, patrolling the deep-square-leg boundary. Badrinath fell two runs and four deliveries later, caught plumb in front as Chennai were reduced to 87/4.
From there on, the rest of the Chennai Super Kings batsmen struggled as Dale Steyn with two wickets and Praveen Kumar with one wicket joined the list of wicket-takers for the visitors while scripting their side’s memorable comeback win.
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