RCB demolish Deccan by nine wkts, qualify for CLT20
Royal Challengers Bangalore qualified for the Champions League Twenty20 after routing Deccan Chargers comprehensively by nine wickets in the third-fourth place play-off match of the Indian Premier League in Mumbai, reports Abhijeet Kulkarni.
The glamour quotient was missing and so was the vociferous crowd. And even those who did make it to the D Y Patil stadium on Saturday were served such a tasteless supper that few started leaving the venue at the end of the Deccan Chargers innings itself.
There was nothing to suggest that the wicket had any untamable demons for the batsmen but it looked like the Chargers never looked keen to apply themselves and ended the third edition of the tournament like they began at the same venue - with a humiliating loss.
With the off field events in the Indian Premier League taking center stage in the last few days, IPL supporters were hoping that two keen contests on the weekend would not only bring the sport back in focus but also dispel any fears about the future of the tournament.
But Chargers performance against last year fellow finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore in the third place play-off left a lot to desire and ensured that the Anil Kumble-led side had a cakewalk into the Champions League Twenty20 championship.
Having successfully negotiated the first hurdle of winning the toss on a wicket that has shown a tendency to slow down considerably as the day progresses, Gilchrist expectedly opted to bat first. But that proved to be the only high point of the day for the Australian stumper.
His dismal form in the tournament continued when he holed out in the deep in the very first over off Kumble and the team collapsed under a disciplined effort from the Royal Challengers bowlers.
Praveen Kumar then sent back Mohnish Mishra and Rohit Sharma and when Dale Steyn made up for a dropped catch on the very first delivery of the next over, Chargers looked totally down and out at 27 for four.
Only Anirudh Singh (40 of 39 balls) and Venugopal Rao (24 of 27) put up a fight but once the latter departed with the score reading 82 runs, Chargers lost their last three wickets in 12 balls without adding a run to the score.
Royal Challengers only needed to bat sensibly to achieve the target.