Bangalore Royal Challengers confirmed their place in the semi-finals of The IPL in fine style with a win over Deccan Chargers.
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Deccan join Bangalore in the last four, but it is The Royal Challengers who carry momentum into the semis following this victory.
Bangalore batted first and a superb century from Manish Pandey underpinned their 170 and it proved too big an obstacle to overcome for Deccan.
The win sets Bangalore on collision course with Chennai Super Kings, while Deccan will face Delhi Daredevils.
The only sour note for Bangalore was a knee injury to Jacques Kallis and he faces a race to be fit in time to face Chennai on Saturday.
Bangalore were keen to secure a positive start but it did not materialise as RP Singh claimed the prize wicket of Kallis.
RP went from hero to zero in the following over as he spilled a simple catch at third man to remove Pandey and it was a drop he was made to rue in some style.
Pandey was on two when he was given a life and he made Deccan pay in some style by becoming only the second player to make a century in this year’s IPL.
Such was Pandey’s dominance, the only other players to reach double figures were Roelof van der Merwe and Virat Kohli.
Pandey came into the game as a virtual unknown, but his 114 not out from 73 balls could have played him into a semi-final place.
Herschelle Gibbs’ form has been up and down in The IPL, but he showed his class and played himself into touch with some fantastic hitting.
The South African was so dominant that he put Adam Gilchrist in the shade.
The Deccan openers put on 68 in just over 6 overs, of which Gilchrist contributed just 15.
Gilchrist fell to Balachandra Akhil and the momentum dried up despite Gibbs still being at the crease.
Suman scored at a run a ball before placing a long hop straight to Van der Merwe at cover and Gibbs (60) holed out to midwicket in a bid to up the rate.
Andrew Symonds heaved across the line to Van der Merwe and lost his off stump and his departure ended Deccan’s hopes of chasing down the target and they ended up 12 runs short.
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