Chasing a big total of 158, Anil Kumble’s Bangalore Royal Challengers struggled to score runs with superb bowling performance of Mumbai Indians. All the bowlers – Kulkarni, Lasith Malinga, Dwayne Bravo, Chetanya Nanda (debutant) took one wicket each, while Harbhajan Singh downed two wickets. Mark Boucher fought a losing battle with unbeaten 48 runs only to reach a total of 141/7.

JP Duminy was the Man of the Match for his batting performance.

The defending Champions Rajasthan Royals are going great guns in IPL Game. In their last essay they smashed a record 211 to beat Punjab Kings XI and today they bundled out Bangalore Royal Challengers for a mere 105 runs to win the match without much sweating.  Under the able guidance of Shane Warne, himself a top bowler, the field placements are brisk and consistent. Rotation of bowlers is done cleverly according to situation warranting, by Shane Warne always on the move. Amit Sing claimed 4 valuable wickets conceding just 19 runs. Wasim Jaffer (8); RD Merwe (15); D Preez (10) and Vinay Kumar (12) were the victims fallen for his bowling performance.  R. Jadeja was another star bowler to claim 3 wickets for just 15 runs – Robin Utthappa (17); Virat Kohli (15) and Mark Boucher (6) – at short intervals. Thus the batsmen of Bangalore Royal Challengers could not break the stiff bowling and ended up at 105/10 after 20 overs.

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to field.  Chasing the easy total of 105 was made effortless by Naman Ohja (not out 52); Greame Smith (20) and Yusuf Pathan (22) by their fine display with the bat.  There was an umpiring error in declaring Naman Ohja run out when actually the TV display showed that it was Lee Carseldine coming from the non-striker’s end as the batsman out. Ohja was called back and Carseldine sent to the pavilion.

Rajasthan Royals achieved top place with 11 points in the Talley with this win.

Amit Singh for his 4 crucial wickets was adjudged Man of the Match.

Fine display with the bat by Jacques Kallis (69 not out) and Robin Utthppa (66 not out) was enough to reach the target of 150 set by Mumbai Indians.

It is noteworthy that both these two batsmen were struggling with out-of-form in their earlier encounters. Once they found their rhythm, there is no stopping of fours and sixes by all the able bowlers of Mumbai Indians put together. Zaheer Khan who could take the only wicket of Wasim Jaffer for 7 runs at the initial stages of the match; Dwane Bravo; Lasith Malinga and Abishek Nayar were all punished contemptuously with the blades of Kallis and Utthappa. Thus the flawless batting of these batsmen belied all anxiety and doubt of winning the match for Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Earlier Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat first.  The new bowler D. Preez struck the heavy blow for Mumbai Indians, when he dismissed cheaply the opener and Captain Sachin Tendulkar for 11 runs. Before recovering from that shock, he struck again in dismissing A. Rahane for a duck and sent back JP Duminy for 1 in quick succession.  However, when it was expected that Mumbai Indians would fold up somewhere inside 120 or so runs, Sanath Jayasuriya (52) with his second fifty in IPL, Dwane Bravo not out 50 as his best score so far, along with Abishek Nayar 29 not out, straightened the Innings to reach a respectable total of 149/4 at the close of 20 overs.

Jacques Khallis for his fine performance was adjudged Man of the Match.

Earlier Bangalore Royal Challengers won the toss and elected to bat. Yusuf Abdulla claimed 4 wickets and Irfan Pathan 2 wickets. Yuvaraj Singh performed the very first Hat-trick of IPL Games today, when he eliminated Robin Uttappa, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher in the last two balls of 11th over and the first ball of 12th over. However batsmen like RD Merwe (35), Kallis (27), Uttappa (19) and Virat Kohli (16) contributed well to sustain the Innings to reach a competitive total of 145/9.

Yuvaraj Singh was the Man of the Match for his Hat-trick and 50 runs.

29th March Cricket Coverage: It was bat and ball play with nerves between Bangalore Royal Challengers and Kolkatta Knight Riders that took upto the last but one ball to seal off the nerve-wrecking win for Bangalore. Mark Boucher hit a boundary off Chris Gayle to finish the winning shot, which took the score to 143/5 against KKR’s 139/6.  Boucher’s unbeaten 25 came off 13 balls with a six and a four with Manish Pandey at the other end (2). Jacques Kallis and Shreevats Goswami laid the foundation well for Bangalore with an opening stand of 69 runs. Bangalore Captain Pietersen (13) and Virat Kohli (19) were taken in one over by Brad Hodge to rattle Bangalore.

Earlier KKR won the toss and elected to bat. Their captain Brenden Mccullum was out with a duck by the part-time bowler Kevin Pietersen in his first over. Kumble sent off Brad Hodge for (17) plumb in front for a fine delivery. Sourav Gangully pulled Praveen Kumar to deep mid-wicket for Kallis to take an easy catch.  Morne van Wyk (44 not out) and Chris Gayle (40) were the top scorers for Kolkatta to take the score to 139/6. Kolkatta were losing wickets at regular intervals so as not to put a defendable total.

Mark Boucher was adjudged as the Man of the Match for his steely nerve in the final overs.