Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Deccan Chargers by 12 runs

Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Deccan Chargers by 12 runs to win the last league match of the second edition of the Indian Premier League at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Thursday and book a semi-final clash with the Chennai Super Kings.

Chasing a victory target of 171 runs, Deccan were restricted to 158/6 in 20 overs and will now meet Delhi Daredevils in the first semi-final on Friday. Manish Pandey was adjudged the Man of the Match for becoming the first Indian to hit a century in the IPL.

Deccan got off to a good start with Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs putting up an opening stand of 68 runs.

Gilchrist hit 2 fours in his 18-ball 15 before Balachandra Akhil had him caught at deep mid-wicket by Roelof van der Merwe.

Tirumalsetti Suman hit a run-a-ball 12 before he was dismissed by Anil Kumble.

Gibbs, who was dropped on 49 by Robin Uthappa at long-on, slammed his third IPL fifty and hit 4 sixes and 3 fours in his 43-ball 60 before he was caught at deep square leg by Manish Pandey off Akhil.

der Merwe then clean bowled Andrew Symonds who hit 18 runs off 15 balls with the help of a six and a four.

Kumble took his second wicket when he had Rohit Sharma (12) caught at long-on by Virat Kohli.

Earlier, 19-year-old Manish Pandey hit his maiden IPL century to power Bangalore Royal Challengers to 170/4 in 20 overs.

Pandey, who was dropped on 2 by RP Singh at third man, became the first Indian to hit a century in IPL, achieving the milestone in just 67 balls.

Pandey remained not out on a majestic 114-run knock that came off 73 balls and was studded with 4 sixes and 10 fours.

Virat Kohli hit 2 sixes in his 9-ball 19 and both he and Pandey hit 23 runs from the last over that was bowled by RP Singh.

Pragyan Ojha was the most successful of the Deccan bowlers dismissing Rahul Dravid (6) and Ross Taylor (1) in successive overs but all that was overshadowed by the dazzling strokeplay of Pandey, who played stunning shots all around the stadium.

Bangalore were 64/2 in 10 overs.

Batting first after winning the toss, Bangalore got off to a poor start losing Jacques Kallis (5) to RP Singh in the second over of the match.

Roelof van der Merwe hit a six and 3 fours in his 18-ball 23 before he was stumped by Andrew Gilchrist off Andrew Symonds.

Deccan have replaced the injured Ravi Teja by Azhar Bilakhia, while Bangalore are unchanged.

Teams:

Bangalore Royal Challengers: Anil Kumble (Capt.), Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Virat Kohli, Roelof van der Merwe, Mark Boucher, Praveen Kumar, Balachandra Akhil, Manish Pandey.

Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist (Capt.), Herschelle Gibbs, Tirumalsetti Suman, Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds, Venugopal Rao, Azhar Bilakhia, Jaskaran Singh, Ryan Harris, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha.

Credits: TimesofIndia