The Royals Challengers Bangalore recorded a much-needed win over the table toppers Delhi Daredevils to keep their semifinal hope alive. The Royal Challengers beat Delhi Daredevils by 7 wickets in a crucial IPL match at The Wanderers in Johannesburg. With this victory, Royal Challengers now have 14 points from 13 matches. They will make it to the semis, if they win their last match against the Deccan Chargers on May 21.

After electing to bat first, Delhi had a disastrous start with both Sehwag and Manhas failing for a duck. Gautam Gambhir made 27, while AB de Villiers scored 28. Dinesh Karthik was the top scorer with 31. Yogesh Nagar contributed 20. The Delhi Daredevils put up 134/7 in 20 overs. Praveen Kumar took three while skipper Anil Kumble took two wickets in the innings.

Chasing a victory target of 135, Royal Challengers Bangalore lost Robin Uthappa at the beginning. However, Kallis and Dravid prevented further damage and added 70 runs for the second wicket. Dravid made 38. Ross Taylor also contributed 25 off 12 balls to raise the run rate.

Kallis smashed an unbeaten 56-ball 58, as Royal Challengers Bangalore reached 135/3 in 19 overs. For Daredevils, Yogesh Nagar took 2 wickets. Jacques Kallis was declared Man of the Match.

Tags: Ab De Villiers, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL Updates, Jacques Kallis, Man Of the Match, Rahul Dravid, Ross Taylor, Royal Challengers Vs Delhi Daredevils

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Tillakaratne Dilshan struck a match-winning unbeaten 67 to help Delhi Daredevils beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets and register its third consecutive victory in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.

Dilshan’s 47-ball knock, studded with five boundaries and two sixes, took Daredevils home after some initial hiccups.

Earlier, skipper Kevin Pietersen and Mark Boucher helped Royal Challengers Bangalore post a modest 149 for seven after opting to bat.

Chasing 150 for victory, Daredevils again lost skipper Virender Sehwag (7) early after he pull off Pankaj Singh to give an easy catch to Pietersen at mid-on in the second over.

In walked the determined Dilshan. He hit R. Vinay Kumar for a four in the third over and then struck a cheeky six over the ’keeper’s head off Pankaj in the next over.

Dilshan, however, got a reprieve on 18 when Pankaj grounded a difficult chance off his own bowling in the sixth over. The bowler made amends a ball later by having Gambhir (16) caught behind.

Dilshan and AB de Villiers, who had scored a century in the previous game against Chennai Super Kings, found the going tough against the spin duo of Anil Kumble and young left-armer K.P. Appanna. The duo kept the scoreboard ticking with ones and twos. It was Appanna who broke their 42-run stand, beating de Villiers with a gem of a delivery that turned viciously.

Needing 61 off 36 deliveries, Dinesh Karthik (12) began with a six off Kallis but perished soon.

Dilshan, however, was in no mood to give up as he hit Kallis for a huge six over mid-wicket and then some sloppy fielding in the deep gave Mithun Manhas two easy boundaries as 19 runs came from the 17th over bowled by the South African.

Royal Challengers lost its grip on the match in the last four overs due to some poor fielding.

Needing 15 from the last two overs, Pietersen called back his best bowler Pankaj, but the move had hardly any affect on Dilshan as he hit the pacer for a boundary off the very first ball and Daredevils scored 12 off the penultimate over.

The Delhi team reached its target with four balls to spare, Manhas hitting the winning run.

Tags: Bangalore Royal Challengers, Daredevils, Delhi Daredevils, Dilshan, Gautam Gambir, IPL 2, IPL 2009, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL South Africa, IPL Updates, Jacques Kallis, Kevin Pietersen, Mark Boucher, Pankaj, Royal Challengers Vs Delhi Daredevils, Virender Sehwag

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Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and decided to bat first against Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.

Royal Challengers made three changes in their playing eleven, bringing in wicket-keeper batsman Mark Boucher, KP Appanna and Balachandra Akhil in place of Rahul Dravid, Praveen Kumar and Jesse Ryder.

While Daredevils have fielded in middle-order batsman Mithun Manhas and left-spinner Amit Mishra in place of Manoj Tiwary and pacer Abhishek Salivi.

Scoreboard:

Bangalore Royal Challengers innings (20 overs maximum)

Kallis                            b Nannes                             0
Uthappa                      c Sangwan b Nehra         3
Pietersen                    b Vettori                           37
Taylor                          lbw b Mishra                   31
Kohli                            c Dilshan b Nehra          22
Boucher                      c Mishra b Sangwan     36
Vinay Kumar            run out (de Villiers)       0
Akhil                            not out                                 8
Pankaj                          not out                                 1
Extras     (lb 5, w 5, nb 1)                                    11

Total     (7 wickets; 20 overs)                         149

Ashish Nehra took 2 wickets while Nannes, Vettori, Sangwan and Mishra took one wicket each restricting the Royal Challengers for 149 -7.

Tags: Akhil, Ashish Nehra, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Delhi Daredevils, Dilshan, IPL 2, IPL 2009, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL South Africa, IPL Updates, Jacques Kallis, Kevin Pietersen, Mark Boucher, Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor, Royal Challengers, Royal Challengers Vs Delhi Daredevils, Sangwan, Virat Kohli

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High on confidence after two successive victories, Delhi Daredevils will strive to continue with the winning momentum while a struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore will try to recapture the lost sheen they started with when the two teams lock horns in an Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.

The Delhi team, by virtue of their back-to-back wins against Kings XI Punjab and last year’s runner-up Chennai Super Kings, is comfortably placed second in the points tally.

In contrast, the Vijay Mallya-owned Bangalore team tamed defending champions Rajasthan Royals in their campaign-opener comprehensively but since then lacking the consistency and languishing on the seventh slot in the tally after losing three encounters on the trot.

The Delhi side will surely count upon their formidable batting line-up with skipper Virender Sehwag joining hands with his Team India opening partner Gautam Gambhir to start the innings, followed by South Africa batsman AB de Villers. The Protea played a beacon with his 54-ball 105 to guide Daredevils to victory in the last match against Chennai and the team will expect another blistering knock from the cricketer on Sunday.

With cricketers like Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan and New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori figuring in the middle order besides ‘keeper Dinesh Karthick and Bengal boy Manoj Tiwary, Delhi batting line-up will be a hard nut to crack.

In bowling department, Delhi cricketer Pradeep Sangwan who scalped 3- 28 in last outing, will find support from the Australian Dirk Nannes and Indian Ashish Nehra. Besides, experienced spinner Vettori will also add to the worry of the Pietersen-led Bangalore side, which was handed a seven-wicket defeat by the Punjab team yesterday.

Former England skipper Pietersen, is surely under pressure and will do everything to prove their first-match win was not a false dawn.

Their Batting department has been inconsistent so far but the opening pair of Kiwi all-rounder Jesse Ryder, who made 32 in last match, and Robin Uthappa has to do a decent job if the Bangalore team to win the match.

However, Protea Jaques Kallis and Kiwi Ross Taylor are seemingly recapturing their touches and may well come out with some crucial innings in Sunday’s encounter.

Their bowling department is lacking the penetration power since they skittled out the Rajasthan team for a paltry 58 in the first tie, thanks to Anil Kumble’s five-for, but failed to do the trick in the subsequent matches.

Tags: Ab De Villiers, Anil Kumble, Ashish Nehra, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Chennai Super kings, Daniel Vettori, Daredevils, Delhi Daredevils, Dilshan, Dinesh Karthick, Gautam Gambir, IPL 2, IPL 2009, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL South Africa, IPL Updates, Jacques Kallis, Jesse Ryder, Kevin Pietersen, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor, Royal Challengers, Royal Challengers Vs Delhi Daredevils, Vijay Mallya, Virender Sehwag

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