Royal Banglore Challengers Vs Delhi Daredevils - Match 52 - New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

It was a do or die match for Royal Banglore Challengers against the tournament leaders Delhi Daredevils. A win here would mean that Royals can keep their semi-finals dream alive, but on the other hand a defeat would make leave them to the mercy of other teams and a must win situation against Deccan Chargers the next match. Delhi who decided to bat first, had another bad start loosing both Shewag and Manhas for "DUCK". The early wickets meant that Delhi could not attack in the first 6 overs and with Dilshan being rested for this match, the Delhi line up looked vulnerable. G Gambhir(27 from 19 balls) and De Villers(28 from 29 balls) could not capitalize on the starts they got. Whenever Delhi looked to accelerate, they lost wickets and hence their run rate never looked ominous. D Karthik's form in this second half of the tournament is an encouraging sign for Delhi. Karthik made 31 from 29 balls. He looked to take singles and doubles and when the time came for him to get his big shots in the last two overs, he lost his wicket to Kumar. In the end Delhi managed a score of 134 loosing 3 wickets. P Kumar picked up two wickets and Kumble got a couple of wickets. But the best bowler for the Banglore was J Kallis. Kallis bowled his four overs conceding just 17 runs and also picked up the important wicket of Gambhir.

The loss of Robin Uthappa early in their chase did not impact the Challengers run chase. Kallis and Rahul were involved in a brilliant partnership and with the run rate not a demanding one, they took time to settle and played risk free cricket. Dravid fell to Nagar after making 38 from 34 balls. Ross Taylor blasted off by hitting 3 sixers and a four, making 25 from just 12 balls, before he succumbed Nagar. With 34 needed from 5 overs Kallis who remained unbeaten on 58 and Boucher ensured a Royal Challenger victory without any further damage.

Toss
Delhi Daredevils won the toss and chose to bat first.

Brief Scores
Delhi Daredevils - 134/7 in 20 overs(D Karthik - 31, AB De villiers - 28, P Kumar - 3/30, A Kumble - 2/24)
Banglore Royal Challengers - 135/3 in 19 overs(J Kallis - 58*, R Dravid - 38*, Y Nagar - 2/20, A Nehra - 1/21)

Result
Banglore Royal Challengers won by 7 wickets

Delhi Daredevils Vs Royal Banglore Challengers - Match 14 - St. George's Park, Port Elizabeth - Bulletin

Delhi were on a roll winning as they made it 3 out of 3 after beating Royal Challengers quite comprehensively by six wickets. Electing to bat first Royal Challengers started off disastrously loosing the openers with just ten runs on the board. The middle did well to rescue the Royal Challengers given the fact that Dravid "The Wall" will not be playing the rest of the tournament as he is on his paternity leave.There were two 50+ partnerships, the first between the skipper, Pieterson(37 off 25 balls) and Ross Taylor(31 off 34 balls) and the next one between V Kohli(22 off 24 balls) and M Boucher(36 off 28 balls). These valuable middle order partnerships helped Royal Challengers reach a respectable total of 149. On the bowling front for Daredevils, all the bowlers chipped in wickets with Amit Mishra being the best of lot with the figures of 1/19.

Chasing a moderate total of 150, Delhi lost Shewag early second time in a row. There is no doubt that Shewag needs to play his natural game, but a bit of sensibility to his batting will add a lot of value to the Delhi team and in the international front to the Indian team. Gautam Gambhir fell after making a sedate 16. With the scoreboard reading 42/2 in the sixth over the match was evenly poised, But Dilshan and deVilliers added another 42 to the score before deVilliers was out for 21. Dinesh Karthik disappointed yet again failing to make any impact apart from a six off Kallis, he was caught at cover by Kallis of Akhil after scoring 12 runs. Dilshan's brilliant innings of 67 from 47 balls and Manhas's cameo of 23 from 13 balls made sure that Delhi reach their target with 4 balls to spare. For Banglore Pankaj Singh took two wickets and was impressive. With four defeats in a row, Royal Challengers must start believing in themselves and more importantly start winning to stay alive in this tournament, else it will be a repeat of their last year's performance or even worse

Toss:
Banglore Royal Challengers won the toss and elected to bat

Teams
Delhi Daredevils
G Gambhir, V Shewag, T Dilshan, AB de Villiers, M Manhas, D Karthik, D Nannes, D Vettori, Y Mahesh, A Mishra, P Sangwan
Banglore Royal Challengers
J Kallis, R Uthappa, K Pieterson, R Taylor, M Boucher, V Kohli, Pankaj Singh, B Akhil, KP Appanna, Vinay Kumar, A Kumble

Brief Scores
Banglore Royal Challengers - 149/7 in 20 overs(K Pieterson - 37, M Boucher - 36, A Nehra - 2/34, A Mishra - 1/19)
Delhi Daredevils - 150/4 in 19.2 overs(T Dilshan - 67*, M Manhas - 23*, Pankaj Singh 2/31,
B Akhil - 1/8)

Result
Delhi Daredevils won by 6 wickets.