On 3rd May 2009 – Royal Challengers Bangalore crush Mumbai Indians
The resilience of the RCB team in the 2009 season was extremely apparent. The team which had slumped to four defeats had seen a reversal in fortunes with consecutive wins in two close contests. The previous game had seen the Bangalore outfit fight tooth and nail to the end to steal a game from that Kings XI Punjab had dominated for the most part. With finally some momentum in their campaign, RCB were looking for a hattrick of wins which would take them to an encouraging position in the league table. Their next opponents were the Mumbai Indians and the venue, The Wanderers in Johannesburg.
RCB had handed a debut to an unknown all-rounder from South Africa, Dillon Du Preez. When Mumbai Indians came out to bat first, Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar would have looked to make easy prey of the starry-eyed Protean who was to bowl the fourth over of the innings. However, Du Preez was not to be overawed by the situation. The third ball of his spell induced an outside edge from an attempted drive by Tendulkar gleefully caught by Rahul Dravid in the slips. Not bad for a first wicket, is it? That of Tendulkar, caught by Dravid at slips. It was to get better. Ajinkya Rahane endured a similar fate, trying the same shot, and was caught by Robin Uthappa off the very next ball. The first-ever over for Du Preez ended in a double wicket-maiden. The cherry on top came in his next over, when JP Duminy attempted a mindless pull shot and edged the ball to Mark Boucher behind the stumps. Mumbai Indians were teetering at 25/3 after the powerplay.
The Mumbai Indians badly needed to get a partnership going, and it was up to Sanath Jayasuriya and Dwayne Bravo to take the team to safety. The duo went about their job stealthily, putting on a 50-run stand. The 60 run partnership was ended when Jayasuriya looking to take on Roelof Van Der Merwe miscued it to the hands to Vinay Kumar soon after bringing up his half-century. However, the partnership had pulled Mumbai Indians out of the woods, but its slow nature meant the innings run rate was still below run-a-ball. Dwayne Bravo and Abhishek Nayar found scoring hard on the Wanderers surface and the innings was going nowhere at 115/4 with only two overs to go. Mumbai, however, got the final push they were looking for. The last two overs went for 34 runs, and suddenly the contest which was looking bland now had a bit of spice in it.
Dillon Du Preez enjoyed a dream debut, as he got Sachin Tendulkar as his debut wicket
Mumbai Indians would have needed early wickets if they were to defend 150. RCB would have been aiming for a solid foundation. Mumbai Indians got their wish off the final ball of the third over when Wasim Jaffer flicked Zaheer Khan uppishly to Abhishek Nayar at square leg. Kallis was joined by Robin Uthappa with RCB needing their two international stars to fire. Kallis paid no respect to the Mumbai trump card Malinga or the fall of a wicket off the previous ball and took on the Sri Lankan. He launched Malinga for two sixers in the first three balls. Uthappa clipped one off his legs and the over had not only yielded 17 runs but had also signaled what was to come - utter domination.
The Kallis-Uthappa duo kept plugging away at the total with low-risk batting. With the target clear, they could afford to go at around 7 an over, not having to display undue bravado. With 92 on the board after 13 overs, they decided the time had come to exercise some freedom. Tendulkar tried to roll his arm over in the hope of inducing a mistake, but the errors came from his side. Three loose deliveries had allowed Uthappa the chance to knock off some easy runs; the over went for 14 runs. The over seemed to have flipped a switch in Uthappa’s head as he kept going now. He deposited a Dwayne Bravo slower delivery well over mid-wicket, and a deft guide past point brought up his fifty. Jacques Kallis at the other end was playing the smart game, dropping anchor, and letting his partner take charge.
With only 28 needed off the last 5 overs, the result was only a formality. The scores were tied when Uthappa gave Sanath Jayasuriya a taste of his own medicine, slog-sweeping him over mid-wicket. A casual single by Kallis gave RCB an emphatic victory over the Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets. If the previous two games had a great deal of grit and determination, this was a sign of domination. With three wins in a row, RCB were now hanging with the top four, which would have been deemed an impossibility a week prior.
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