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Mumbai: A disciplined Royal Challengers Bangalore thrashed Deccan Chargers by 9 wickets to book their slot in the Twenty20 Champions League on Saturday.
After bowling out Deccan for meagre 82 runs, Bangalore lost only one wicket, of Jacques Kallis (19), before achieving the target with 37 balls to spare.
Rahul Dravid (35 not out) and Kevin Pietersen (29 not out) steered their team home comfortably adding 50 runs for the second wicket. Dravid hit five fours in his 30-ball inning whereas Pietersen slammed two huge sixes and a four in his 21-ball inning.
Kallis hit three fours and took his time to score his runs in 32 balls and put on a 36-run opening stand with Rahul Dravid before falling to spinner Rahul Sharma in the eighth over.
Earlier, Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble (4-16) led his superb bowling attack to bundle out Deccan for 82 in 18.3 overs.
Anil Kumble took two more wickets in the nineteenth over to wrap up the dismal Deccan innings with nine balls to spare. For Bangalore, Jacques Kallis (2-3) and Praveen Kumar (2-18) took two wickets each whereas Dale Steyn (1-11) and Nayan Doshi (1-17) grab a wicket apiece.
Deccan lost wickets at regular intervals and failed to establish any partnership or momentum in their innings against Bangalore.
Soon after losing partner Anirudh, Venugopal Rao (24) got out in the seventeenth over off Nayan Doshi. Rao hit two fours and a six in his 27-ball vigil on the crease.
Jacques Kallis started bowling late in the sixteenth over and soon took wicket with his first ball to get rid of Anirudh Singh (40), who was leading the Deccan charge.
Anirudh slammed four boundaries and a huge six in his steady 39-ball inning and added 43 runs for the sixth wicket with Venugopal Rao to steady the Deccan innings after early blows.
Anil Kumble struck again in his second spell to dismiss Dwayne Smith (5) as the leg-spinner clean bowled the West Indian in the ninth over.
Pacer Dale Steyn rectified his mistake on the field by dismissing Andrew Symonds (2) soon after dropping a catch of the same batsman in the previous over.
Praveen Kumar dismissed Rohit Sharma (0) in the fourth over after he struck with his first ball of the match to reduce Deccan to 4/2 in 1.1 overs as he scalped Monish Mishra (0) in the second over of the match.
After the first ball of the match was hit for a four, Kumble dismissed his counter-part Adam Gilchrist (4) soon in the same over as Jacques Kallis took a good catch at deep square-leg.
Brief scores
Deccan Chargers 82 (Kumble 4-16)
Royal Challengers Bangalore 86 for 1 (Dravid 35*)
Result Royal Challengers Bangalore won by nine wickets
MOM Anil Kumble (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
