By IANS,
Bangalore : In a must win match to stay in the race for a berth in the semis, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) late Saturday beat Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven wickets in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in this cricket crazy tech hub.
With this sweet victory on home ground, Challengers bounce back to second position in the league table with 12 points from 11 matches, winning six and losing five.
Chasing a modest target of 161 at a run rate of 8 per over, Challengers cruised to victory in 17.1 overs by scoring 164 for three wickets, thanks to a fiery knock by local lad Robin Uthappa, who smashed 52 runs in just 22 balls, lofting five mighty sixes and thrice finding the ropes.
New Zealander Ross Taylor, who walked into the middle after the fall of the “wall’ Rahul Dravid in the 14th over with the score at 102, finished the game on a winning note, with a four to remain unbeaten in a 62-run fourth wicket partnership with Uthappa.
Though the tournament’s top scorer Jacques Kallis got out cheaply for 8 in the third over, the dependable Rahul Dravid and new opener Sridharan Sriram steadied the innings from 11 to 83 in 11 overs and put on a commendable 72-run partnership for the second wicket.
The home team, which lost to Knight Riders in their opening match at Kolkata March 14, avenged the defeat by restricting their opponents to 160 for nine wickets in the stipulated 20 overs.
Though Riders began on a cautious note, openers Sourav Ganguly and Chris Gayle steadied the innings to score the first 50 in 5 overs and 100 in 11 overs.
After the fall off Gayle for 34 at 52 and Ganguly for 33 at 103, Riders struggled to maintain their momentum and lost three wickets for 2 runs in a span of 14 balls.
Brendon McCullum, however, kept the score ticking with a swashbuckling 45 containing five hits to the ropes and two sixes.
Medium pacer Vinay Kumar was the most successful bowler for the Challengers, with three crucial wickets for just 23 runs, followed by Jacques Kallis with two wickets for 31 runs. Kumble and Dale Steyn shared one wicket each.
There were two brilliant run outs. Extras were 11.