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Taylor's blitz sinks Delhi
by Rohit Sakunia


Ground:M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
Scorecard:Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Daredevils
Player:V Sehwag, A Kumble, LRPL Taylor, RS Dravid, DP Nannes, V Kohli
Event:Champions League 2009/10

DateLine: 17th October 2009

 

Bangalore handed a clinical thrashing to the Delhi side as they knocked them out off the Champions League 2009/10. Taylor once again came good for the Bangalore side as he walloped the Delhi bowlers into submission with a stunning display off stroke-play which left the bowlers stunned and the home crowd delighted.

 

Earlier in the evening, Anil Kumble, on his 39th birthday, walked out for the toss in front of a huge Bangalore crowd for a game immaterial to his team's run in the tournament. The Cobras' eight-wicket win just a few minues back had pushed Bangalore out of the competition, and Kumble, in a surprising decision opted to field first on a surface that had to do a bit later in the day considering the wear and tear on it.

 

Jacques Kallis was still missing from the Bangalore 11 and this time it was 18-year-old Bhuvneshwar Kumar for B Akhil. Gautam Gambhir's Delhi Daredevils have to win this match and the next to stay alive in the Champions League, and they went in with an unchanged side.

 

Sehwag started as usual in his swashbuckling style and on a day the entire nation was busy with crackers all kinds, he made sure the Bangalore crowd don't miss any because of the match. At that time it appeared that anything less then 160 would leave Delhi disappointed. The boundaries were easy early on and apart from Steyn's first over, none in the powerplay was impressive. Sehwag began with three successive fours off Praveen Kumar, all trademark Viru shots and then eased Steyn off his pads between three fielders.

 

Young Bhuvaneshwar Kumar could not have asked for a poorer opening. He was welcomed with a clipped boundary and continued to go for runs as Sehwag ran amok. Then after the Delhi openers had posted a good stand, Gambhir succumbed to a fired-up Steyn, and it should have been two in two but Tillakaratne Dilshan was dropped by Praveen Kumar, a bit late to react at deep fine leg.

 

Poor fielding continued as Dilshan was again reprieved in the next over, this time the culprit was Virat Kohli as he fired a throw from backward point, missed, and Boucher failed to get across. The result was four overthrows. the result was four overthrows with Dilshan well short.

 

Then after the powerplays came the turning point. In to bowl were van der Merwe and Kumble and true to his nature, Sehwag looked to dominate. In six overs then in tandem, van der Merwe and Kumble took three wickets for 27 runs. van der Merwe also scalped the prized Sehwag. Sehwag's dismissal stemied runs as with the track slowing up, the run-rate dipped with it, and spinners took full advantage. Kumble was next to strike and he sent back last match success Dinesh Karthik with his third ball.

 

Resultant of this from 77 for 1 after nine overs, Delhi scored 61 in the next 11 and lost five wickets meaning leaving their bowlers a Herculean task while Bangalore will bat.

 

Bangalore in reply did not have the ideal start as they lost the impressive Manish Pandey to injury. It seemed that the young batsman had pulled a muscle and with a runner denied to him he had no option but to retire hurt. His opening partner Uthappa did not last long as short ball strategy from Nannes paid off when he coaxed Uthappa to top-edge one straight to the throat off Mishra at square-leg. In walked Ross Taylor and what he brought along with him was something that Delhi was least prepared for.

 

Taylor got going by slapping veteran McGrath past deep point and then continued with his assault. He continued his attack on the veteran by lofting him over mid-off and then slapping over his head to raise the decibel in the stadium. Dravid not wanting to be left behind found the occasional boundaries to try and keep the pace with Taylor. Then came the turning point off the game, Taylor was on 18 when he lofted Mishra to long-off. Nehra who was patrolling the long-off boundary made a complete meal of the catch as he palmed it over the boundary for six. Taylor celebrated his reprieve by calmly lifting Bhatia over long-on and couple of balls later Bhatia dropped Taylor and this time he had only himself to blame.

 

Taylor did not stop his rampage as he trained his guns on McGrath as he edged and pulled the veteran for a couple more boundaries. Mishra suffered at the hands off the New Zealander as he reached his fifty in 29 balls. He continued his stunning assault as Mishra was bludgeoned into submission as 21 runs came in his third over and Delhi had pretty much lost the plot.

 

Nannes cleaned up Taylor to bring some cheer into the Delhi camp but Kohli continued from where Taylor had left. The match was over in a torrent of boundaries as Kohli and Dravid simply waded into a hapless Delhi bowling to bring some cheer for the home-side.

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