South Africa Duo See Challengers To Victory

Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis provided the late fireworks to guide the Bangalore Royal Challengers to a last-over victory against the Mumbai Indians on Sunday night.
The South African duo smashed 55 from 31 balls for the fifth wicket to lift the Royal Challengers to their first victory of the competition following their opening night defeat against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Robin Uthappa (48 from 38 balls) had formed the backbone of the Mumbai innings before Shaun Pollock's late cameo (28 from 12) helped them to 165 for six.
After a solid start to their reply, the game threatened to drift away from the visitors, until Boucher and Kallis combined to take 19 from the 18th over, bowled by Ashish Nehra, to leave them requiring just 11 runs from the final two overs.
Kallis fell to a superb catch from Abhishek Nayar in the next over, but Boucher remained to ensure victory by five wickets.
With Mumbai captain Sachin Tendulkar unable to take his place due to a groin injury, Harbhajan Singh stepped into his role, winning the toss and electing to bat.
Sanath Jayasuriya smashed 18 from the fifth over of the match, bowled by Kallis, but his onslaught was cut short in the next over when Zaheer Khan ran him out for 29 from 16 balls.
Uthappa then took command of the innings hitting five fours and a six until he was stumped by Boucher from the bowling of Balachandra Akhil.
That paved the way for some late over hitting and Pollock obliged with three fours and two sixes during his brief stay at the crease.
After capitulating to be all out for just 82 in their run-chase against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday night the visitors began their reply in positive fashion.
Shiv Chanderpaul hit consecutive boundaries to take 10 from Nehra's opening over.
Top-order contributions from Chanderpaul (16), Rahul Dravid (32) and Ross Taylor (23) set a solid foundation for the hosts, but with four overs remaining they still required 40 for victory.
That set the scene for Kallis (25 from 24 balls) and Boucher (39 from 19) to open their shoulders, highlighted by a massive six from the wicketkeeper-batsman off Nehra which landed on the roof of the main stand.

Knight Riders Remain Unbeaten

Twenty20 cricket was given a makeover in Kolkata on a bowler-friendly pitch on which the batsmen were forced to work for every run, the Deccan Chargers painstakingly making their way to a score of 110 all out in the fourth match of the IPL against the Knight Riders, who scrambled home thanks to two late sixes from David Hussey.The Knight Riders overcomes a lengthy stoppage due to floodlight failure and some late blows from Andrew Symonds (32) and Sanjay Bangar (14) which aided the Chargers' cause no end and it took until the 11th over of the reply for Hussey to hit the first maximum of the second innings.Brendon McCullum (five) and Ricky Ponting (nought) never got going but Saurav Ganguly (14) did before he was bowled by Pragyan Ojha, who also removed the hard-hitting Mohammad Hafeez for 13. Hafeez smashed Symonds down the ground for six before trying to reverse sweep Ojha, only finding the hands of Symonds who took a smart catch over his shoulder.Hafeez and David Hussey had up until then been keeping the runs ticking over and keeping the run rate required at just under or exactly a run a ball before a floodlight failed with the match critically poised.So critically, that had the lights not come back on, Duckworth-Lewis had the sides tied and a bowl-out would have been required.With 22 to win and 20 balls remaining, Hussey took Scott Styris for a six and a four from the last two balls of the 18th before winning the match with a straight hit off of Pragyan Ojha for a five-wicket win, the Kolkata side's second of the tournament.Earlier, Adam Gilchrist briefly flashed, twice hitting Ajit Agarkar over fine leg for six before the turn to spin undid both him and the rest of the batting line up. Attempting a repeat off of Murali Kartik he was caught in the deep by Mohammad Hafeez for 23.The next man to hit a maximum was Arjun Jadav who just cleared long-on off of David Hussey only to try it again two balls later and hole out to long-off. Another two balls, and another wicket with Chaminda Vaas (nought) spooning a catch to Saurav Ganguly at mid-off.Ishant Sharma started things off in the right manner by bowling a wicket maiden to see of Yalaka Venugopal Rao (ten) and captain VVS Laxman followed for a six-ball duck.Symonds played a watchful knock, finally hitting Hussey for consecutive sixes on the on-side in the 17th over and he was imitated two balls later by Sanjay Bangar to bring up the century.Rarely can an innings of 32 have disguised so much application and he looked fully worth his $1.35 million price tag before Hussey got some revenge by taking the catch that saw him dismissed off of Agarkar in the 18th over.Agarkar, whose first over disappeared for 16, came back to finish with two for 19 while Kartik, bowling on a pitch he would like to roll up and take everywhere with him, returned three for 17.Symonds, however, was scathing, claiming that such pitches that break up in the second or third over, will 'kill' the Twenty20 game.Laxman won the toss and chose to bat.