Bangalore pull off a thriller
Mark Boucher played a steady hand to lead Bangalore to a thrilling last over win against Kolkata on Wednesday.
Boucher held his nerve in a tense final over to guide the Royal Challengers to a five-wicket win against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Kevin Pietersen's final match as Bangalore skipper.
Set 140 to win, the Challengers made heavy weather of reaching their opponents' total but prevailed in the last over as Boucher's four off the penultimate delivery sealed his side's second win in this year's Indian Premier League.
Boucher's 25 off 13 balls ultimately proved the difference but Sreevats Goswami's 43 was a vital contribution.
Brad Hodge and Ishant Sharma gave the Knight Riders every opportunity to post only their second win of the tournament with figures of three for 29 and two for 15 respectively, but their efforts were in vain.
The victory lifts the Challengers from the foot of the standings where they are replaced by the Knight Riders.
Bangalore eased out to 69 without loss at the start of their innings but they were only keeping pace with the Kolkata run rate despite giving up fewer early wickets.
A tactical time-out at the end of the 10th over changed the momentum as Goswami fell after the resumption, the opener edging to wicketkeeper Morne van Wyk after attempting to sweep Hodge's delivery.
Jacques Kallis (23) followed just moments later, the all-rounder's skied effort from Ishant dropping into the gloves of Van Wyk to leave the Challengers on 77 for two.
Virat Kohli slogged the first six of the Bangalore innings but next ball he was out for 19 when he nicked an edge through to Van Wyk who took another catch close to the stumps.
Pietersen was in a good position to guide the Challengers to a win before returning to England for the Test series with West Indies but a rush of blood needlessly ended his innings for 13 a short time later, the England man playing a high stoke which Wriddhiman Saha took at mid-on.
Ishant accounted for Roelof van der Merwe as Van Wyk took another catch to leave Bangalore needing 11 to win from the final seven balls of the innings.
The inexperienced Manish Pandey got a single at the start of the innings bowled by Chris Gayle to get Boucher on strike, and the South African immediately responded to move the Challengers to within five runs of victory.
Boucher struck another two to level the scores before winning the match with a boundary from Gayle's full-toss delivery.
Earlier, Kolkata captain Brendon McCullum set the tone for his side when he fell to the first delivery of the match, the New Zealander lobbing the ball out to Kohli at point off the delivery of Pietersen.
Hodge (17) plundered the first six of the match as Kolkata recovered, the Australian's efforts making him the first player in Twenty20 history to pass 2000 runs.
Kolkata upped the run rate to around nine an over before Anil Kumble's delivery caught Hodge plumb in front to end his promising partnership with Gayle.
Dada failed to get going
Much was expected of Sourav Ganguly but the Indian departed for just one run in the ninth over, Kallis taking the catch in the deep after the Kolkata batsman had been enticed into a big swing by Praveen Kumar's shorter delivery.
Gayle's innings ended on 40 as KP Appanna's slower ball saw him hole out to Goswami, while Van Wyk was unbeaten on 43 at the end of 20 overs but Kolkata's total of 139 never looked like it would be enough.
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