Royal Challengers Bangalore crushed Deccan Chargers by nine wickets and snatched a place in the champion league at the Dr. DY Patil stadium here on Saturday.
It was a spineless display by Deccan Chargers which folded up for paltry 82 runs. Only two batsmen managed scores beyond two digits and Anirudh Singh (40) managed nearly half of the teams total. Bangalore cruised home in the 14th over with Dravid (35) and Kevin Petiersen (29) remaining unbeaten and added 50 runs for the second wicket.
A few people turned up for the tie and match petered out to be a lop-sided contest much to their dismay. Adam Gichrist had yet another failure at the top and the he set the tone of the contest when he skied Kumble to be caught in the deep. The big guns in the Deccan line-up failed to fire. Andrew Symonds could repeat his rescue act and even he couldnt cash on to the reprieve he got when Steyn dropped him. Symonds made just two when Steyn snared him. Rohit Sharma and Smith fell in quick succession as Deccan slid to 35 for five. Then came the best phase of the innings when Anirudh Singh (40) and Venugopala Rao added 43 runs for the sixth wicket.
But what followed the dismissal of Vengopala Rao was shocking considering the manner in which Deccan batted throughout this tournament. Deccan collapsed from 78 for five to 82 all out losing the last five wickets for just four runs in 3.3 overs. It was the lowest total in this season's IPL.
Kallis bored the handful of spectators with a sedate innings while Dravid played a few crisp shots at the top compensate Kallis obdurate knock. Sharma snapped up Kallis. But Petiersen and Dravid ensured that Banaglore clinched the champions league spot without much fuss.