Banglore Royals Challengers vs Deccan Chargers - Match 56 - SuperSport Park, Centurion

The last league match between Deccan Chargers and Banglore Royal Challengers was just a formality as both the teams had already qualified for the semi - finals. However this match was important as the winner would be setting up a semi-final clash with the Chennai Super Kings and the looser of this match had to face Delhi Daredevils. Kumble who called right decided to bat first and Banglore innings was dominated by one man, the 19 year old Manish Pandey. It was Pandey's day as he became the first Indians to score a ton in the IPL and was awarded the man of the match for his innings. Pandey who was dropped by RP Singh when he was on 2 made the Chargers pay for their mistake. He made 114 from 73 balls hitting 10 fours and 4 sixers. A few aspects which needs to be mentioned about his innings were his hard running and waiting for the ball to come to him before going for his shots. Van de Merwe(23 from 18 balls) and Virat Kohli(19 from 9 balls) provided some good support for Pandey. The fact that around 106 runs came from the last ten overs was a testimony of Deccan bowler's suffering.

Deccan Chargers had a solid start to their chase with a firs wicket partnership of 68 runs before Gilchrist was accounted by Akhil. Most of the Deccan batsman lost their wickets when they looked set for a bigger innings. Suman(12), Symonds(18), R Sharma(12) got the starts but failed to capitalize on it. Gibbs played brilliantly for his 60 but in the end Deccan fell short by 12 runs handing Banglore a crucial morale boosting victory.

Toss
Banglore Royal Challengers won the toss and chose to bat first.

Brief Scores
Banglore Royal Challengers - 170/4 in 20 overs(M Pandey - 114*, V der Merwe - 28, P Ojha - 2/32, A Symonds - 1/15)
Deccan Chargers - 158/8 in 20 overs(H Gibbs - 60, A Symonds - 18, B Akhil - 2/18, A Kumble - 2/23)

Result
Banglore Royal Challengers won by 12 runs.

Deccan Chargers Vs Banglore Royal Challengers - Match 8 - Newlands, Cape Town - Bulletin

Gilchrist's blitzkrieg combined with Rohit Sharma's sensible batting powered Deccan to a 24 run victory against the Banglore Royal Challengers in the Match 8 of DLF IPL 2. Both the teams which finished the previous edition of IPL at the bottom of points table, had a very good start to this season and were looking to take their game one notch higher. Deccan Chargers won the toss and started brilliantly adding 46 runs for the first wicket in just around 4 overs, the destroyer in chief being none other than the retired Aussie veteran Gilchrist. The wickets of Gibbs and Laxman fell at quick succession and with Deccan looking like losing their way at 66/2, the in-form man Rohit Sharma came to the crease. If Gilchrist's Innings was a Wham-Bham blitzkrieg, Rohit's was a well measured, well paced and a sensible innings. When Gilchrist was sending the Royal Challengers for a lether hunt, Rohit sensibly rotated the strike and in the process got accustomed to the nature of the wicket. Once well set Rohit took his game to the next level hocking Kumble for three sixers in one over. Once Gilchrist fell in the 14th over Rohit made sure that the momentum is not lost, and Deccan ended up making 184 loosing six wickets at the end of their innings.

Needing 185 to win at more than 9 runs per over, it seemed to be an herculean task, for Royal Challengers, which required a brilliant start combined with some sensible batting. With Jesse Ryder loosing his stumps to Fiedel Edwards the very first ball and wickets falling regularly, Royal Challengers were virtually eliminated from the contest. With the run rate touching 15 runs per over Rahul Dravid played brilliantly for his 48, to reclaim the orange cap. Dravid's innings and Virat Kohli's late burst weren't enough and Royal Challengers fell short by 24 runs. Having lost two games in a row now, Royal Challengers have to pull their socks up in order to stay in contention for the semis. On the other hand Deccan having won both the games will be looking to maintain the momentum in the next few games.

Toss:
Deccan won the toss and elected to Bat

Teams:
Banglore Royal Challengers
J Kallis, R Uthappa, K Pieterson, R Taylor, R Dravid, V Kohli, R Bishnoi, P Kumar, KV Sharma, Dale Steyn, A Kumble
Deccan Chargers
A Gilchrist, H Gibbs, VVS Laxman, R Sharma, S Styris, YV Rao, Harmeet Singh, P Ojha, RP SIngh, B Ravi Teja, F Edwards

Brief Scores:
Deccan Chargers - 184/6 in 20 overs(A Gilchrist - 71, R Sharma - 52, K Pieterson - 2/31, D Steyn - 1/21)
Banglore Royal Challengers - 160/8 in 20 overs(V Kohli - 50, R Dravid - 48, S Styris - 3/32, RP Singh - 2/17)

Result:
Deccan Chargers won by 24 runs.