CL T20: Kohli, Pandey take B’lore to semis

Agencies

New Delhi, 22 September 2010: Finally, Virat Kohli’s (49 off 29) second blitzkrieg in a row, supported by Manish Pandey (44 off 36), helped Bangalore end up on the winning side and prevent absolute dominance of the South African teams, as they edged out the Highveld Lions by 6 wickets on Tuesday to book a place in the semifinals.

 

Replacing injured Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey gave Rahul Dravid solid company as Bangalore set off chasing 160 methodically, but a rush of blood from Dravid (33) saw his off-stump dislodged to give Lions their first breakthrough. Manish Pandey justified his inclusion in place of injured Jacques Kallis but he couldn’t convert it into a half century after being splendidly caught at long-off in quest of quick runs. Though two wickets down, Bangalore still had things under control.

 

However, Ross Taylor’s walk back to the pavilion, soon after Pandey’s wicket, made things tense for Bangalore and brought the match in balance with required run-rate climbing to nine runs per over. But Kohli was in no mood for a close finish like the one against Mumbai Indians where he couldn’t take his team home despite a cameo. However, in that endeavour, he ran Robin Uthappa out.

 

 

That made Kohli’s effort, supported by Cameron White, even more determined. White, too, seemed to discover some of his lost big-hitting touch in the partnership. The duo wasted no time once the win was 25 runs far and spanked those in style to book a place in semis, a first for an IPL team in the Champions League.

 

Earlier, some lusty blows by Frylinck in the last over took Lions to a competitive target of 159 in 20 overs. Alviro Peterson top scored with 45 while Vinay picked up 2 wickets for 23 runs for Bangalore. After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Lions openers got off to a confident start before Jonathan Vandiar (11 off 11) nicked the ball down the keeper’s throat on the bowling of Vinay Kumar.

 

Richard Cameron followed Vandiar soon back to pavilion as he was out on the very next ball without troubling the scorers. Captain Alviro Petersen and middle order batsman Vaughn van Jaarsveld’s then played some superb shots all around the park in their partnership of 54 off just 26 balls before Vaughn was run out following a mix-up with skipper.

 

Alviro Petersen (45 off 29) led from the front scoring at a staggering pace but his counterpart Anil Kumble got the better of him just when Bangalore needed, raising hopes of restricting Lions under 170. Neil McKenzie then brought his experience into play with a 39 run innings but even that could not take Lions to score of around 175 that they would have hoped to get after electing to bat first.

 

Steyn and du Preez bowled right at the batsmen’s toes to stop them from playing the big shots in the death overs that helped in restricting Lions to just 159/6.