On this day in 2009 - Bowlers help RCB beat DD

When it came to the business end of the league phase in the 2009 IPL season, RCB were starting to find different gears to their game. Having beaten Chennai Superkings in their previous game, the team was riding high on confidence. With only two more games left in the league stages, RCB were up against table-toppers Delhi Daredevils at the Wanderers in Johannesburg in their penultimate fixture. A victory would go a long way in ensuring passage to the semi-finals.

With everything to play for, Bangalore were charged up from the get go. Delhi, having decided to bat first were given an immediate jolt as they lost their talismanic opener and captain Virender Sehwag to Praveen Kumar. Mithun Manhas was dismissed two balls later, and RCB had picked up two wickets in the very first over. Gautam Gambhir and AB de Villiers tried to stitch a partnership together, but on a slow surface coupled with some tight bowling found runs hard to come by. Gambhir lost his patience off the final ball of the powerplay, as he cut one straight to Ross Taylor off the bowling of Jacques Kallis.

Jacques Kallis was declared the man of the match for his calm, unbeaten 58 in the run-chase

Despite the best efforts of Dinesh Karthik and de Villiers, the fourth-wicket pair could hardly muster any surge in the scoring rate. When De Villiers lost his stumps to a Roelof Van Der Merwe arm ball, Delhi were in deep trouble at 65/4 in the eleventh over. Anil Kumble sneaked one under the defence of Andrew McDonald and RCB were well on top in the contest. Yogesh Nagar and Karthik put together a 39-run stand which lent the Delhi score some respectability. The innings, however, never seemed to be able to gather any pace and meandered along at around 6 runs per over. Delhi set Bangalore a target of 136.

Much like Delhi’s struggles, RCB began their chase in the worst possible way, losing opener Robin Uthappa off the last ball of the first over. However, unlike Delhi, Bangalore had the luxury of knowing the target in front of them and hence could refrain from taking unnecessary risks. The experienced duo of Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid set out in their pursuit of 136 with caution. Acknowledging the need to preserve wickets, the duo sacrificed run rate for stability in the innings. The powerplay yielded only 27 runs, but the two legends of the world game kept RCB in touch of the target. The invaluable 71 runs the two put together for the second wicket ensured that the rest of the batting order could exercise its freedom in hunting down the remaining 64 runs.

Ross Taylor, coming in at no.4 played the perfect cameo for the situation, knocking off 25 runs in only 12 balls, which included three massive hits that cleared the boundary ropes. By the time Taylor holed out to long-on, RCB’s required rate was reduced to 7 an over off the last 5. The Protean pair of Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher ensured there were no further hiccups in the pursuit. Jacques Kallis remained unbeaten on 58 off 56 balls, as RCB cruised to victory with an over to spare.