Mallya's men stun Dhoni's team

AS VIRAT Kohli hit the final runs, the stadium went gaga in unison! He pumped his hands in the air and had the same expressions as he had when his team had won the Under 19 World Cup. To accompany him was Ross Taylor, the X factor of the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Mallya was the happiest man around as his team- mates hugged each other on the ground.

Overconfidence is something that can bring anybody down to earth in no time. This is what happened with the Chennai Super Kings as they probably underestimated the Royal Challengers. The game began on the usual note as expected. Patel and Hayden gave a flying start to their side hammering Royal Challengers with extreme power play. Patel looked like a pocket size powerhouse and he even dominated the mighty Hayden while scoring runs. They scored runs with a run rate of almost 10 per over. But once the duo departed, the net run rate fell and though Dhoni, Raina and Morkel did gave contributions of 20 plus runs each, there was no one who could inflate the scoreboard with a heap of runs in the slog overs. The Chennai Super Kings ended their innings at a score of 146. The Royal Challengers needed to chase the target with a run rate of 7.30 runs per over. Having Murali, Gony, Jakati, Balaji, Dhoni and his men would have thought it to be a decent total against a team that had been labelled as the test side.

But then Royal Challengers is a side that has some ageless warriors who would never give up until the last ball. Manish Pandey the new Indian sensation of IPL came to open the innings with Kallis. Manish began his innings where he had left in his last match. He hit Morkel for two stylish boundaries in the first over and the body language said it all. Kallis departed in the next over after scoring two boundaries off Gony and after losing another wicket entered ‘The Wall’. Manish Pandey continued playing his shots with pure brilliance and Dhoni’s Super Kings had no reply for the stylish Manish and the Wall. Dhoni as a captain hardly has flaws but he was too late to hand over the ball to Murali in the ninth over.

The Royal Challengers played him with due respect and Murali again bowled a brilliant spell but wasn’t able to take more than a wicket as the Challengers had a cautious approach towards him. By the time Pandey departed he had done his job scoring 48 off 35 balls and Royal Challengers needed just 53 runs off 45 balls. With Boucher, Kohli, Uthappa still to come, and with the Wall still firm as always, Kumble and his men could easily see their chances of making it to the finals. Kohli was promoted above Boucher and he along with Taylor took the Royal Challengers to a memorable victory.

Towards the end when RC needed a few runs to win, the Royal Challengers behind the boundary had got into a huddle. As Kohli hit the final runs, Mallya began a Bhangda and the Royal Challengers ran into the ground, they moved in a group like the birds who had found a new sky to fly! Dhoni looked extremely disappointed.

This can be called the rebirth of the Royal Challengers. They have looked completely different as a team after Kumble was handed the captaincy of the side. With them being in such great form we can certainly expect an entertaining final IPL encounter!