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Bangalore Royal Challengers managed to keep their hope of playing in IPL semi-final with a seven-wicket victory over Delhi Daredevils on Tuesday (May 19). With this win, Royal Challengers moved to fourth spot on IPL table with 14 points from 13 matches. Electing to bat first at the New Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg, the Daredevils managed to score 134 runs in their allotted 20 overs. The Delhi team was restricted to low total because of some good bowling from Royal Challengers' Praveen Kumar (3-30) and Anil Kumble (2-24).
Chasing a modest total of 135, Royal Challengers began their innings on a cautious note. Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid put on to partnership of 71 runs for the second wicket, which gave Royal Challengers a solid platform to win the match in 19 overs. Dravid scored valuable 38 runs before getting out to Yogesh Nagar while Kallis remained not out on 58 from 56 balls. The South African all-rounder smashed two fours and two sixes in his solid knock. Apart from Kallis, Ross Taylor played a cameo of 25 runs off 12 deliveries that helped Royal Challengers to speed up the run rate.
Taylor's fiery knock contained three sixes and one four. When Royal Challengers needed 23 runs from 18 balls, Kallis hit Daniel Vettori for 14 runs with one six and a four. The Bangalore team scored the required runs in the 19th over and sealed the victory. Earlier wicket keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik played a handy knock of 31 runs to help Daredevils reach the score of 134 runs. Skipper Virender Sehwag (0) once again failed to perform and his current form might hurt Daredevils in the semi-final. The man-of-the-match award was given to Jacques Kallis for his match-winning innings.
