Deccan Chargers claim important victory against Bangalore

Deccan Chargers' bowlers defended a total of just 152 to claim an important 13 run victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore that keeps their hopes of reaching the Semi-finals of the IPL still alive.

The Royal Challengers run chase got off to a dramatic start as Ryan Harris delivered the perfect first ball which Manish Pandey peeked behind to Adam Gilchrist to give the Chargers the early break through.

Jacques Kallis was joined at the crease by Rahul Dravid and the pair saw off the remaining 5 balls of Harris's over before they started the recovery. Kallis and Dravid played an aggressive innings smashing 8 boundaries in an innings of 49 from just 35 balls as the Royal Challengers wrestled the advantage away from the Chargers.

The partnership of Kallis & Dravid of 74 was ended by Andrew Symonds who picked up the key wicket of Dravid. But with 8 wickets in hand the Royal Challengers were still in control of the game needing another 78 runs from 58 balls. After the losing Dravid, the Royal Challengers were happy to score at a run a ball as the game drifted through a quite period until Kallis, Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli were dismissed in between the time line of 13 balls. Cameron White (4) became RP Singh's 50th wicket in IPL cricket to leave the Royal Challengers in danger of giving away the game after their middle order was destructed.

As long as Robin Uthappa remained at the crease, the Royals Challengers still had a chance of victory. Uthappa smashed Harris for 2 huge sixes in the 17th over as the tension inside the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium started to increase.

From 2 overs to go the Royals Challengers needed just 18 more runs to all but guarantee their place in the knock out stages but the Chargers struck back with Harmeet Singh who picked up 2 wickets in two consecutive balls to remove Uthappa, scoring 34 runs, and Dale Steyn to set up the victory for the Deccan Chargers.

Harmeet Singh was the Man of the Match for his match turning spell in which he claimed two consecutive wickets. Suman got the 'kamaal catch of the match' award. However, Uthappa received the 'Maximum sixes' award.