Match 24: RC v. KXI: Yuvaraj's Hatrick in vain as RC win by 8 Runs!

Yuvaraj picked the first hat-trick of this season dismissing Uthappa, Kallis, and Boucher. He picked 2 wickets in the last 2 balls of his 2nd over and picked Boucher's wicket in the first ball of his 3rd over.

This is the 4th hat-trick in IPL with 3 coming in the first edition held in India in 2008.

This win has given RC a chance to come back to the competition and reach semis. This should give lot of confidence and energy to the team. Deciding to bat first, as usual, RC lost wickets at regular intervals. The 42-run partnership for the 4th wicket was the highest of the RC innings. Kallis and Uthappa added 42 in 34 balls.

Uthappa, Kallis and Boucher fell for Yuvi. Merwe showed his all-rounder skills and contributed valuable 35 in 19 balls which included 3 sixes and 3 fours. Abdulla another strike bowler for KXI picked 4 wickets while Yuvi ended with three.

Chasing 137 against the weak bowling attack is always easy. But, this match proved it otherwise. As Bopara went to England to play against WI, Yuvi opened the innings with Goel. They both played well and added 70 for the first wicket. Yuvi scored 50 in 34 balls with 3 fours and 4 sixes. Goel followed Yuvi for 20.

73 needed in 9 overs with 8 wickets in hand. Katich playing his first match was run out of an excellent fielding by Merwe at point.

The last 44 required of last 4 overs. Jayawardane looked dangerous for a while as he hit two continuous fours of Praveen Kumar in the 17th over. Praveen gave away 14 runs to change the equation to 30 in 3 overs.

Merwe picked the wicket of Jayawardane caught at point. But, his poor bowling helped KXI to score two more fours in that over--one leg bye down the leg stump and the other full on the leg stump which was easily put to square leg. That over added 13 runs to the toal with 17 required of 2 overs.

Kumble picked the wicket of Sangakkara, the man for KXI fell for Kumble. Moving on the leg side to give room for a cut, the ball didn't bounce as he expected and knocked the stumps. He bowled a tight over giving just 4 runs in the 19th.

Praveen Kumar bowled the last over with no run in the first ball. The second ball went for a four by Irfan Pathan. Irfan did not read the slower ball and no run scored in the next delivery.

9 runs in 3 balls. Irfan did not put enough pressure on the low full toss as it ended in the hands of Kohli, his second catch.

9 from 2 balls, Piyush Chawla trying to slog of a inswinging yorker. The ball took the inside edge and knocked the bails. No run was scored of the last ball as Royal Challengers tasted their 3rd win.

Interesting match as Yuvi picked a hat-trick, then scored a 50 and put 70 run partnership for the first wicket. The match changed with a good spell by Kumble in the middle of the innings as he also picked 2 wickets.

Scoreboard:

Match # 24
Date: Friday May 1, 2009
Teams: Bangalore Royal Challengers v. Kings XI Punjab
Captains: Kumble and Yuvaraj
Toss: RC, decided to bat
Venue: Kingsmead, Durban
Result: RC won by 8 runs
Points: RC 2; KXI 0
Man of the Match: Yuvaraj off KXI

Royal Challengers Innings:

Batsman	How Out	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Ryder	c Jayawardene b I Pathan	2	5	0	0
Goswami	c Chawla b Abdulla	10	14	0	0
Bishnoi	c Chawla b Abdulla	18	14	1	2
Kallis	b Yuvaraj	27	22	4	0
Uthappa	c Katich b Yuvaraj	19	17	2	0
Kohli	c Chawla b I Pathan	16	14	2	0
Boucher	lbw b Yuvaraj	2	4	0	0
van der Merwe	c I Pathan b Abdulla	35	19	3	3
P Kumar	Not Out	9	7	1	0
A Kumble	b Abdulla	1	3	0	0
Appanna	Not Out	0	1	0	0
Extras	(b 1, lb 1, w 4)	6	-	-	-
Total	for 9 wkts in 20 overs	145	-	-	-

Fall of Wickets: 1-2 (Ryder, 0.5 ov), 2-27 (Bishnoi, 4.4 ov), 3-38 (Goswami, 6.1 ov), 4-80 (Uthappa, 11.5 ov), 5-80 (Kallis, 11.6 ov), 6-84 (Boucher, 13.1 ov), 7-128 (van der Merwe, 17.4 ov), 8-133 (Kohli, 18.1 ov), 9-136 (Kumble, 19.1 ov)

Bowler	O	M	R	W
I Pathan	4	0	19	2
VS Malik	3	0	29	0
Abdulla	4	0	36	4
R Powar	1	0	8	0
P Chawla	4	0	29	0
Yuvaraj	4	0	22	3

Kings XI Punjab Innings:

Batsman	How Out	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Yuvaraj	c Kallis b Kumble	50	34	3	4
Goel	c Kohli b Merwe	20	29	2	0
SM Katich	Run Out (Merwe/Boucher)	3	5	0	0
Sangakkara	b Kumble	17	23	2	0
M Jayawardene	c Kallis b Merwe	19	15	2	0
I Pathan	c Kohli b P Kumar	12	9	2	0
P Chawla	b P Kumar	3	4	0	0
R Powar	Not Out	0	0	0	0
Srivastsava	Not Out	0	1	0	0
Extras	(b 4, lb 6, w 3)	13	-	-	-
Total	for 7 wkts in 20 overs	137	-	-	-

Fall of Wickets: 1-70 (Yuvraj Singh, 9.5 ov), 2-73 (Goel, 10.6 ov), 3-84 (Katich, 12.4 ov), 4-116 (Jayawardene, 17.1 ov), 5-129 (Sangakkara, 18.2 ov), 6-137 (Pathan, 19.4 ov), 7-137 (Chawla, 19.5 ov)

Bowler	O	M	R	W
Z Khan	4	0	31	3
Napier	4	0	27	1
Harbhajan	4	0	24	0
Malinga	4	0	23	0
Jayasuriya	1	0	13	0
AM Nayar	4	0	20	1