So finally this year final will be played between the last two ranked teams in the last season of IPL – Deccan Chargers v/s Royal Challengers Bangalore. 

Royal Challengers Bangalore fairytale continues, comprehensively beating Chennai Superkings in the second Semi-final match of this IPL by six wickets. The team stood at the 7^th position in table last year so it’s been tremendous come back by the Royal Challengers showing their true strength and making the tag of “Test Team” a distant memory. And the record stands extremely good for our own Jumbo, Anil Kumble, in the last 9 matches he has captained in the IPL the team has won, so one might say that Kevin Peterson leaving to play for England was a blessing in disguise. 

 

It was a total team effort where every player chipped in. Anil Kumble won the toss and made a clear point about being confident in chasing. In the bowling department they didn’t at any stage allow the Superkings to runaway with the game. Mathew Hayden and Parthiv Patel started in their usual manner tearing the bowling, but the timely bowling changes done the trick for the challengers. None of the Superkings batsmen got going and the frustration could be easily seen on the face of the MS Dhoni when he was dismissed.

 

 They were set a target of 147 which by no means was out of reach considering the performance of the Challengers in the last few matches. The RCB started in a composed manner and Manish Pandey continued his form from the previous game. They lost Jacques Kallis early and Van der Merwe was promoted to hit some lusty blows and get the run rate going but even he could stay long, then came Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid and he along with Manish started the run flow without any risk taking shots. Manish was the highest score with his 48 coming just 35 deliveries. Muttiah Murlitharan did his every bit to get match back in Chennai camp but Challengers played him sensibly but lost Rahul dravid in his final over. Then came Ross Taylor and continued his run flow, Virat Kohli and Ross Taylor finished the match in style without any further hiccups. 

 

Finally Manish Pandey for his free flowing, stylish and highest score in a winning match was awarded the “Man of the Match” his second in succession, so the honeymoon period for him continues.

Manish in the post match presentation – “Today I got the license from Anil bhai to hit. I didn’t want to get out to Murali and wanted to give Rahul the strike.”