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.

This was Rohit Sharma’s bowling performance in the match between Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians on Wednesday.  This part-time bowler just could not believe his own fiat, as he had only taken 2 wickets in first class matches so far.  The hat-trick of Rohit Sharma in taking the wickets of Abishek Nayar (1) and Harbhajan Singh (0) in successive balls of the 16th over and JP Duminy (52) on the first ball of 18th over changed the entire course of the match.  He also dismissed S. Tiwari for 3 by a short ball, which defeated the batsman and enabled the Wicket Keeper Gilchrist to smash the stumps.  Otherwise Mumbai Indians looked to sail through safely to reach the winning target, with JP Duminy, the South African star batsman, hitting the balls right. When he fell, it was all over and the tail-enders just could not raise upto the mark. The target of 146 was far off to reach.

Deccan Chargers won the toss and elected to bat.  Inspite of the openers Gilchrist and Gibbs falling cheaply for 25 and 0 runs respectively, the other batsmen – Suman (20), Rohit Sharma (38), Dwayne Smith (16) and Venugopal Rao (28) took up the fight with their bat and finished with a reasonable total of 145/6 at the end of 20 overs.

With this win Deccan Chargers found solace after three consecutive failures.

Rohit Sharma for his Hat-trick and fine performance with the bat 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 Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat.  Opener Sanath Jayasuria packed off early with 6 runs, caught behind by Wyk off Ashok Dinda. Harbajan Singh promoted to 3rd bat also went with 6 runs by a Murali Karthik delivery. Sachin Tendulkar was out for 34 runs in 30 balls.  It was J.P. Duminy who batted with courage till the end of the Innings (52 not out) responsible for the respectable total of 148/6.

For his superior batting performance in getting 52 runs and capturing the wickets of Brad Hodge by a run out and Morne van Wyk with a catch, JP Duminy was adjudged as the Man of the Match.

Kings XI Punjab won the toss and elected to bat first. Batsman walked back to the pavilion right from the start steadily. Ravi Bopara (6), Karan Goel (12), Captain Yuvaraj Singh (10), Mahela Jayawardane (7) and Irfan Pathan (7) and other batsman in single digit runs left the crease, while Kumar Sangakkara staunchly held fort till the end to score an unbeaten 45. Result is Kings XI Punjab were able to put up a meager total of 119/8 in 20 overs.

Mumbai Indians’ batsmen chasing this easy total were no better either. Experienced batsmen like Sanath Jayasuriya (0) and Captain Sachin Tendulkar (1) failed to shine, followed by Shikhar Dhawan (3), Bravo (15), Abishek Nayar (15) getting out at crucial times. JP Duminy fought a losing battle bravely with 59 runs and was unlucky to be out when expected to steer the team to victory. Harbajan disappointed with a poor shot to fall at 6 runs. Thus a good team surrendered a beautiful chance of winning, meekly to the other side.

Kumar Sankakkara of the losing team was adjudged Man of the Match for his good score.

Venue :Kingsmead, Durban
Live action starts from: 10:30 GMT (16:00 IST)  Twenty20 match

Kolkata Knight Riders Vs Mumbai Indians

Venue :St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth
Live action starts from: 14:30 GMT (20:00 IST) T20 IPL 2009 Twenty20 match

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