(Cricinfo) At the halfway mark it seemed as if Kings XI Punjab had scored enough to record their first victory of the tournament, but Royal Challengers Bangalore went after the target with such vengeance that Punjab were punished for trespassing on private property.
At the forefront of the chase was the reborn Twenty20 basher Jacques Kallis, who smashed an unbeaten 89, and playing valuable and entertaining supporting roles were Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa.
One of Bangalore’s adopted sons, Ross Taylor, wasn’t around to send the ball soaring like he’s done many times, but the power hitting from Kallis, Uthappa and Pandey more than made up for his absence.
The batsmen with strong forearms thumped the ball with amazing velocity to fetch massive sixes, particularly over the on side, to deflate the bowling side and cut the target down to size.
Although Punjab were overpowered by a better batting side on the day, they could have restricted Bangalore had they bowled better lengths.
The spinners in particular were guilty of dropping the ball on a length which sat up nicely for the batsmen to rock back and swing their arms. The fuller lengths didn’t work and that was illustrated by one particular over from Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, which went for 25.
The only way to restrict them was to either bowl yorkers or hurry them up with pace and bounce but Punjab didn’t possess the bowlers to do either.
Kallis’ biffing made the crowd delirious as Bangalore neared the target but the early entertainer was Manish Pandey.
The Ranji season’s highest run-scorer earned a promotion and made it count by the sheer power of his strokes and using the crease. The ball was coming on nicely on to the bat and they had the freedom to hit across the line at will. A lightning quick straight drive nearly cleaned up the umpire and the bowler, Irfan Pathan, was smoked for two huge sixes over his head in his next over. Pathan was smacked for bowling it too full and when Yuvraj Singh held the length back, Pandey shoveled him over midwicket for a six.
Piyush Chawla sent him back for 38, trapping him with a quicker delivery and inducing a top edge. There was no respite for Punjab as Robin Uthappa walked in and recorded the second-fastest fifty of the IPL. He rocked back and smacked Chawla with a powerful forehand, following it up with a delicate late cut. Abdulla was spanked over the second tier at deep midwicket but the more experienced Sreesanth suffered the worst treatment of the night. Uthappa cleared the front leg to smash three sixes and a four in five balls. Sangakkara was running out of options and at that stage he must have wondered of his team should have scored 250 instead.
