Match Review of Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala

Indian Premier League
Date 8th May 2011
TeamsRoyal Challengers Bangalore vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala
Match no. 50
VenueM. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.
UmpiresAleem Dar and S. S. Hazare Third Umpire: R.B. Tiffin
TossKochi Tuskers won the toss and elected to bat

Playing XI

Kochi Tuskers Kerela Mahela Jayawardane © Michael Klinger B. McCullum Parthiv Patel Brad Hodge R. Jadeja Raiphi Gomez Prashanth Paramesawarn S. Srisanth R. Vinay Kumar R. P. Singh

Royal Challengers Bangalore Daniel Vettori © Chris Gayle Virat Kohli AB de Villiars Mohd. Kaif T. Dilshan S.S. Tiwary S. Arvind Zaheer Khan Asad Pathan Abhimanyu Mithun

The Royal Challengers Bangalore would host the Kochi Tuskers in the 50th match of this IPL season. As the tournament is progressing and the race for the play offs places is intensifying, the win here would be crucial for both the teams. The Challenger's are positioned at No. 4 with 11 points and the Tuskers were at no. 6.

The Challenger's are looking tough since the inclusion of Chris Gyale and have won all the matches since the time he has joined the team. He has been instrumental in charting their wins in all the matches. The Tuskers on the other hand have a balanced batting line up with hitters like McCullum and Brad Hodge and players like Patel, Jayawardane and Jadeja to give strength. Challenger' definitely have an edge playing on their home-ground but it was expected to be an interesting contest.

The Tusker's captain after having won the toss elected to bat. Klinger and McCullum opened the innings in style as McCullum looked in a mood to score quickly. They both put a good opening partnership of 43 runs before McCullum was caught off the bowling of Vettori. Klinger was the next man to go as he was clean bowled by Gyale. With both openers back in the pavilion, the Tuskers were at 64 runs in the 9th over which was considered as good start by them.

Thereafter, things never improved for the Tuskers as their middle order completely collapsed. Except for couple of good innings of 19 & 23 runs by Patel and Jadeja, no other batsman contributed to the scorecard. Brad Hodge, who is a 20-20 specialist, was caught brilliantly by Zaheer Khan of the bowling of Arvind. Fielding and bowling performance by Royal Challengers was exceptionally well. Local boy S. Arvind was brilliant with bowl with 2 wickets for 20 runs. He has had back to back success in two matches.

No one from the Tuskers middle and the lower order stayed at the innings for very long. As the wickets kept falling at regular intervals, the run rate came down drastically. All that the Tuskers could manage was a score of 129, which looked about 20-30 runs short on this pitch.

Looking at Chris Gayle's devastating performance this season, the total of 125 looked pretty ordinary. He is so destructive with his bat that he takes away the game away from the opposition in the 1st six overs itself. Surprisingly he was unsold at the IPL auction and could not make way to IPL season 4 because of lack of form. But having seen his performance last few matches, it looks like he is on an avenging tour this time to India.

T. Dilshan and Chris Gayle came to crease and started assaulting the Tuskers bowlers' right from the very first ball. They looked in hurry and wanted to finish it off as early as possible. Prasantha, the Tusker's lead bowler who has looked impressive in last couple of matches was taken to task by Chris Gayle in his first over itself and was brutally thrashed by Gyale when he scored runs in an over. It was a dream over for Chris Gayle and but a nightmare for Prasantha. The over looked like 6, 6 (No Ball), 4,4,6,6,4.

The Challengers reached the total of 60 runs in just 3 overs. Chris Gayle got out on 44 in just 16 balls with 3 boundaries and 5 sixes on a Yorker delivery from Vinay Kumar. But by the time he got out he had already done the damage and won the match as more than half of the chase already covered. Virat Kohli joined the party and was in the same spree where Gayle left. Dilshan took the charge and score quick 52 in just 31 balls with 8 boundaries and 1 six.

The Challengers completed their run chase in the 14th over itself, which has improved their net run rate drastically. A comprehensive win by the Challengers taking them to 2nd position on the points tally and confirming their place in the play offs.

Result: Royal Challengers won by 9 wickets.

The Awards

Man of the match
Chris Gayle for his all round performance with bat and ball.

Maximum Sixes
Chris Gayle for hitting 5 sixes

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Chennai Super Kings top the chart

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Virender Sehwag- Delhi Daredevils.

Purple Cap (The leading wicket taker)
Lasith Mallinga- Mumbai Indians

Question of the day
Would run rate play a major role in Play-offs?



Last Updated on 9 May 2011