Daredevils go down fighting to RCB

New Delhi: Virat Kohli scored an aggressive 56 as Royal Challengers Bangalore held their nerves to beat Delhi Daredevils by three wickets in the Indian Premier League here Tuesday.

Chasing a victory target of 161, Bangalore got off to a good start after losing Tillakaratne Dilshan in the first over. Kohli (56 off 38 balls) and Chris Gayle (26) smashed 82 runs off 49 balls for the second wicket.

Daredevils forced their way back, taking four quick wickets with Morne Morkel (3-25) doing the damage. But Daniel Vettori (18 not out) and Syed Mohammad (13 not out) guided the team home with three balls to spare. Syed Mohammad was impressive, showing a cool temperament and hitting two fours off Umesh Yadav at crunch time.

With the victory, Royal Challengers jumped to second place in points table with seven points from as many matches. Daredevils, who were looking for a turnaround after the victory against Kings XI Punjab at home in the last match, are at the bottom of the table with four points after six matches.

Daredevils were under attack from Kohli, who threw his punch on anything short and timed the ball perfectly, overshadowing the explosive Gayle. Dinda was struck for two fours and Irfan Pathan's for four fours from Kohli's blade.Gayle joined followed with a four and six off Morne Morkel. Kohli was on a song and the match was fast slipping away from Delhi Daredevils.

Delhi, however, came back in the match with some brilliant bowling and fielding. Hopes removed Gayle and soon Bangalore lost four wickets for just 24 runs. Warner's brilliant pick and throw from the deep brought the end of AB de Villiers and Kohli, who hit eight fours and two sixes, chopped one back to his stumps off Morkel. Cheteswar Pujara holed out in the deep and Delhi roared back in the match.

Saurabh Tiwary (18) and captain Vettori added 32 runs but the former, after striking a six off Morkel, fell in the same over. Royal Challengers needed 24 runs off 22 balls when Morkel removed Abhimanyu Mithun. Vettori got an able ally in Syed Mohammad, who kept his cool to see the team through.

Earlier, it was not the kind of start that Delhi would have hoped after being put in to bat, considering they rely heavily on explosive openers Virender Sehwag (25) and David Warner (7). The two were separated with 33 runs on the board when Zaheer Khan (1-27) crashed into Warner's stumps. Sehwag was run out with Abhimanyu Mithun's accurate throw. James Hopes then tightly held one end.

Abhimanyu Mithun (2-37), who extracted good pace from the wicket, bowled Mathew Wade and Delhi soon slid into familiar territory, with three wickets down for 68 runs insde 10 overs. Hopes and Venugopal Rao (24) set down to rebuild the innings. Rao hit two fours off Mithun that came after two parched overs.

The Daredevils' previous match against Kings Xi Punjab was a six-hitting competition but on Tuesday, the first six came in the 15th over courtesy Venugopal's flick over square leg off Mithun. Hopes was caught by Tillakaratne Dilshan in the 17th over, but Mithun's delivery was ruled a no ball in what looked like a touch-and-go affair. Hopes and Rao mustered 47 runs for the fourth wicket before the latter was bowled by Vettori when he came down the track to accelerate the run flow.

Naman Ojha joined Hopes and hit some lusty strokes. He lifted Vettori for a straight six and then dispatched Zaheer over the ropes with an audacious strike. Mithun finally dismissed Hopes and this time his foot was fractionally behind the line. Source: IANS