It was an incredible chase under lights as Royal Challengers Bangalore led by a superb knock from Jacques Kallis (89 not out) crushed Kings XI, Punjab by eight wickets in the DLF IPL 3 at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday.

Kallis shrugged off his image as cricket’s eternal grafter and probably played his best T20 knock. Kallis today wore the cloak of a rapier as put the Kings attack to sword. The big South African drilled eight boundaries and five sixes in a breathtaking display of power hitting as Kings XI’s imposing total of 203 for two was chased with lot to spare.

The young Manish Pandey (38) and Robin Uttappa’s (51 off 21 balls) played their parts well in the chase. Uttappa’s brutal assault on Sreesanth was the high point of the chase. Uttappa smote the Kerala medium pacers for three sixes and a four to take 25 runs out of that over and fittingly Uttappa made the second fastest 50 in the history of IPL.

King’s XI attack was predictable and presented a lot of loose deliveries to the Bangalore batsmen who didn’t look the gift horses in their mouths. Though Sangakkara rotated his bowlers none could create an impression on the rampaging batsmen.

Manish Pandey’s early aggression deflated the King XI bowlers though Chawla snared him, there was no respite as Uttappa launched into the attack in style. Kallis’ pulled anything short savagely through the mid wicket and freezed his arms when presented the opportunity and Kings XI bowlers were generous in dolling out bad deliveries to the South African.

The blazing knocks from the Bangalore batsmen completely overshadowed the good knocks from Manvinder Bilsa and Bopara. The more experienced Bopara watched from other end as Bilsa tore into the Bangalore attack. After being circumspect against Steyn, Bilsa found the friendly pace of Kallis and Vinay Kumar to his liking and treated them with disdain. He was cheeky and innovative against Virat Kohli who was taken for 15 runs as the Punjab side galloped to a good start. Kumble wasn’t spared either. Bilsa (75) left after laying a good foundation and the good work was carried on by Bopara and Jayawardene.

Bopara (77) opened up in the latter part of the innings and looked a different batsman after he completed his fifty which came out of 42 balls. He singled out Praveen Kumar for special treatment. Jayawardene played shots of clear class as the last five overs of the innings brought in 73 runs. King XI crossed 200 which at that stage made them the clear favourites. But Kallis and company had other ideas