Jaipur: The story of Bangalore's dismal run in the Indian Premier League continued as Jaipur came up with another impressive show at the Sawai Man Singh stadium to register a 65-run win, their eighth victory on Saturday. With this game in the bag, Jaipur are almost sure of qualifying for the semi-finals. After posting 197-1, Jaipur restricted Bangalore to 132-9 with Rahul Dravid's heroic knock going in vain.
After asked to take first strike by Dravid, it was an almost perfect outing for Jaipur as their top-order clicked, taking them to the imposing total without breaking into a sweat. A century stand by the openers and a blazing knock by the in-form Shane Watson ensured Bangalore had to play out of their skins for their elusive third win.
Chasing the daunting target, Bangalore were out of contention within minutes of their run-chase. Sohail Tanvir (three for 10) and Munaf Patel (two for 21) removed the brittle top-order in no time and it was always going to be a no-contest after the visitors had lost three wickets and lingered at a run-rate less than four. But Dravid scored a fighting 75 that comprised six boundaries and as many sixes in his gritty 36-ball knock but it was never going to be enough to challenge Jaipur's royal total.
An overambitious shot by Arun Kumar (zero) saw him perish on the second ball of the innings. Misbah-ul-Haq (zero) miscued a pull off his first ball to give an easy catch at mid-on. Virat kohli was cleaned up by Sohail Tanveer, Bangalore tottering at 5-3. Cameron White (10) hung on for a while till he smashed one straight down long-on's throat. The visitors hardly came up with any successful attacking shots to slump to 38-4 in 10 overs, the asking-rate climbing to 16.
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