2010 IPL 3 Match 7: RCB Stun KXIP In Heavy Run Fest

Just when one thought the Royal Challengers Bangalore were getting themselves in a pickle, they came right back as Jacques Kallis provided another innings of magnitude.
The RCB owner, Vijay Mallya, was back for the RCB’s contest against the Kings XI Punjab after missing the first one to be by his Formula One team, Force India, last weekend for the Bahrain Grand Prix. And it seemed that the RCB would make a greater effort not to upset their franchisee owner. It did not look like it when they were under the hammer from the KXIP batsmen. But the RCB batsmen proved to be the winning bat wielders on the day.
The day though started admirably for the visitors, cheered on by Preity Zinta. After a watchful start, Manvinder Bisla and England’s Ravi Bopara, the latter playing the anchor’s role, lined themselves for a feast.
Bisla, in particular, showed great impetus and turned out what appeared to be a quiet start into a thunderous pick up, once that frustrated the RCB captain, Anil Kumble, no end. The 129 run opening partnership came at a terrific pace, and until the fourteenth over, the RCB’s wait to see the back of Bisla seemed interminable.
But with Bisla gone for seventy-five runs off fifty-one balls, punctuated by four sixes, Bopara changed tracks and from anchor, he turned his mood into onslaught, plunging into the lead with seventy-seven runs.
That partnership and Mahela Jayawardene’s thirteen-ball twenty-six run cameo raised 203 for the Kings XI Punjab team and put the hosts under immense pressure in front of a packed house.
But if cricket supporters thought this was going to be another one sided match, the RCB woke up to the task, and what followed was pure magic as the KXIP were simply blown away.
Three partnerships over sixty runs ensured that the RCB always stayed in the game, even though it was tough doing from the very start, chasing at ten runs per over. But what the hosts could count on was the ever reliable Jacques Kallis, even though South Africa had previously ignored him for the 2007 ICC World Twenty20.
Kallis joined hands with Manish Pandey, and while the latter fell to Piyush Chawla for thirty-eight runs, he ensured there was momentum going into the next partnership.
Robin Uthappa became the instigator as Kallis dropped anchor, and the ploy worked to perfection as Uthappa slapped four boundaries and an equal number of sixes en route to twenty-one ball fifty-one. And the Kings XI Punjab, who were enjoying the cushion of double hundred in their total, starting to feel the heat under the collar.
And it was Kallis who closed out the match with Virat Kohli lending good support as RCB pulled off a stupendous win to seven balls to spare and eight wickets still in hand.