Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Kallis stars in Bangalore triumph


Jacques Kallis put up a brilliant all-round performance to steer Royal Challengers Bangalore to an 80-run victory against Otago Volts.

After starring with bat, Jacques Kallis wrecked havoc with the ball too. He first sent the danger man Brendon McCullum packing early in the Otago innings as Anil Kumble took the easy catch at mid-on.

He then struck again two balls later to show Aaron Redmond the way back, Robin Uthappa Uthappa taking the catch this time.

Hamish Rutherford became Kallis' third victim as Kumble took the catch at mid-off.

Neil Broom then lost his wicket to a run-out.

Kumble followed by packing off Nathan McCullum cheaply.

Roelof van der Merwe accounted for the sixth wicket in Dmitri Mascerenhas.

Kumble took another one by sending back Ian Butler.

Balachandra Akhil claimed the rival skipper's wicket as Uthappa took the catch.

Vinay Kumar packed off Derek de Boorder for the penultimate wicket. Kallis caught Neil Wagner off Virat Kohli to wrap up the match.

Earlier, Kallis made sure the RCB innings ended the same way as he and Uthappa had started it -- in top gear.

The veteran Protean hit a brilliant 73 to give Otago a 189-run target. Ross Taylor also pitched in towards the end, making a quick 32 off 11 balls.

Uthappa just fell short of eight runs in his half-century and ended up playing an Aaron Redmond delivery for an easy catch to Craig Cumming.

Virat Kohli hit some quick runs before losing his wicket to Neil Wagner, with Nathan McCullum catching him near the boundary.

Earlier, the home side's skipper Anil Kumble called right at the toss and elected to bat against Otago Volts in their Group C fixture.

RCB and Otago Volts would be desperate to put their campaigns back on track when they meet today.

Anil Kumble's Royal Challengers and Craig Cumming's Otago Volts were both stung by South African side Cape Cobras in their respective opening matches, leaving them with no other option but to raise their game if they are to keep alive their hopes of progressing to the league stage of the tournament.

The Royal Challengers lost to Cobras despite a good batting performance and it was a mixture of poor bowling and JP Duminy's batting pyrotechnics that did them in.

Robin Uthappa and Ross Taylor have shown that they are in good nick and any batting order that includes the likes of Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher is bound to keep their opponents sleepless nights.

But for the Bangalore side, bowling remains their biggest chink in the armoury and their inability to defend a 180-run target against the Cobras expose the frailties of their leather-flingers.

The teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: JH Kallis, RV Uthappa, R Dravid, V Kohli, LRPL Taylor, MV Boucher†, B Akhil, RE van der Merwe, R Vinay Kumar, P Kumar, A Kumble*

Otago Volts: BB McCullum, AJ Redmond, HD Rutherford, CD Cumming*, NT Broom, NL McCullum, AD Mascarenhas, IG Butler, DC de Boorder†, WC McSkimming, N Wagner

Click here for the Scorecard

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