A superb bowling show from Royal Challengers Bangalore saw Pune Warriors crashing to a massive 35-run defeat at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium. RCB have now won their 7th game of the tournament and with that are sitting pretty in the third position with 15 points. For the Pune Warriors, it’s a disaster as they have gone onto lose for the 10th time in the tournament in 14 games!
Needing 174 to win from 20 Overs, Pune Warriors were never ever in the contest after a top order collapse that saw them at 22 for 3 in 3.5 overs. Robin Uthappa, coming in at no.4 did some damage control but only to depart in the 9th over itself after a 23-ball 38 (with 5 fours and a six).
The homeside kept on losing wickets at regular intervals which led them to a poor total of 138 for 9 in the allotted 20 overs. Apart from Uthappa, Bengal batsman Anustup Majumdar scored 31 from 26 balls with 4 fours which could at the most reduce the margin of defeat for the Pune Warriors.
On the bowling front for the RCB, Zaheer Khan did well for his 2 for 21 in 4 overs, R Vinay Kumar came up with 3 for 32 and veteran Muttiah Muralitharan refused to go for any runs as he finished with a superb 2 for 16 in 4 overs.
Chris Gayle, who had earlier smashed 57 from 31 balls to set up RCB towards 173/3 got the Man of the Match award.
© BV Swagath
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