2010 IPL 3 Match 18: Chennai Buried by Utthapa's Late Charge

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Sreelata YellamrazuMar 23 2010

Even as people were expecting another unbeaten knock from Jacques Kallis, another man was high in the Royal Challengers Bangalore dressing room and his bat virtually buried the rival from the south, the Chennai Super Kings.

robin uthappa

It would be hard for any team to recover from the dramatic collapse that the Chennai Super Kings suffered two nights ago at the hands of the Kings XI Punjab as the latter won the match in the Super Over eliminator.

Losing two big hitters in Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Justin Kemp did not help in the previous game. And it did not in the game when Robin Uthappa turned on the heat in the latter half to the RCB innings, leaving no time for the CSK to take stock.

Jacques Kallis was fortunate to survive a caught behind appeal off Albie Morkel but was not so lucky against Laxmipathy Balaji. There were a few fits and starts in the RCB line up, but until Uthappa came on the scene, the Chennai team was chasing a rather modest target.

That changed as Uthappa pulverized the bowling, hitting three successive sixes off the penultimate over as he raced to a thirty-eight ball sixty-eight resplendent with six sixes as RCB finished on a more formidable 171, this despite Muttiah Muralitharan slicing through the RCB innings with three wickets.

George Bailey stepped in for the injured Justin Kemp and for a while, the ship seemed steady with Matthew Hayden inspite of the rocky scenario of chasing ten runs an over. Hayden even became confident enough to call for the Mongoose bat. But two quick wickets led to four and the Chennai Super Kings were all but packed up to leave Bangalore.

As Anil Kumble applied the pressure and tightened the screws, Vinay Kumar showed once again his handiness with the ball, picking up four wickets in a stunning display of submissiveness on the part of the Chennai Super Kings, subduing even the otherwise CSK ambassador, Krishnamachari Srikkanth as the visitors lost by thirty-six runs, finishing on 135 with the promise of lots but only empty hands to return home with.

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