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Centurion: The IPL has thrown its first unknown Indian superstar. Manish Pandey came from nowhere to smash an unbeaten 114 that helped Royal Challengers seal a berth in the semifinals in style.
It not only helped Royal Challengers beat Team Hyderabad by 12 runs, but also allowed them a day’s breathing space before the semis. They will now take on Team Chennai on Saturday while Gilchrist’s men will be up against Team Delhi, the table toppers, on Friday.
The game was all about the little-known Pandey, who became the first Indian to score a century in the IPL. Royal Challengers coach Ray Jennings took a gamble by sending Pandey to open the batting, and the 19-year-old, after the initial struggle, cut loose.
He made a little room for himself and anything pitched in his zone kept vanishing into the stands. Pandey was an absolutely unknown quantity for Hyderabad captain Adam Gilchrist and he just didn’t know how to contain him.
He shuffled his bowlers around, but the Karnataka batsman simply marked his spots and found the gaps with effortless ease. There were a couple of dropped chances, but that doesn’t take anything away from the stupendous effort of the teenager in such a pressure game.
He only got a little quiet when he was past 95, but Pandey made that up brilliantly once he crossed his century.
A couple of huge hits followed and as he finished the innings off with an over-boundary, Gilchrist was the first one to come up and congratulate him.
The Aussie legend, though, got his team off to a whirlwind start, and along with Herschelle Gibbs, they put on 68 runs off 6.5 overs.
Even after Gilchrist got out, Gibbs kept up the chase with some breathtaking batting. When Robin Uthappa dropped Gibbs at long-on, the Hyderabad fans believed it might just be their day, but that was not to be.
Gibbs departed soon after and when Symonds and Rohit Sharma got out a little later, it was all over for Hyderabad.
Royal Challengers were once again well served by the bowling of captain Anil Kumble and B Akhil who both got two wickets each while giving away very little.
Brief Score: Royal Challengers Bangalore 170 for 4 (Pandey 114*) beat Deccan Chargers 158 for 6 (Gibbs 60, Akhil 2-18, Kumble 2-23) by 12 runs.
