Pretoria: Young Manish Pandey notched up his maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) century as the Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated the Deccan Chargers by 12 runs in a high-scoring match here Thursday to set up a semi-final clash against the Chennai Super Kings.
Opting to bat first, the Royal Challengers rode on Pandey’s blistering 73-ball 114 to post a competitive 170 for four before restricting the Deccan Chargers to 158 for six.
By virtue of the victory, the Royal Challengers moved to the third spot in the table with 16 points and will take on the second-placed Chennai Super Kings in the second semi-final on Saturday. The Deccan Chargers will be up against the mighty Delhi DareDevils in the first last-four match on Friday.
Chasing 171 for victory, Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs got the Deccan Chargers off to a rollicking start, scoring 64 runs in the first six overs.
Both openers were in a murderous mood, especially Gibbs, as he dispatched Praveen Kumar for back-to-back sixes and a four to score 22 runs in the fifth over.
Fellow country-mate Roelof van ver Merwe too came in Gibbs’ firing line as he hit the left-arm spinner for two sixes — first over mid-wicket and then over long-off in the next over.
But a clever bowling change from skipper Anil Kumble (two for 23) in the seventh over — bringing in Balachandra Akhil (two for 18) — did the trick, with Gilchrist (15 off 18) top-edging a pull to give a simple catch to Van der Merwe.
Needing 33 of the last two overs, Kumble drove the final nail in Chargers’ coffin, picking up the dangerous Rohit Sharma (12 off 12).
In spite of the defeat, the Chargers progressed to the semi-finals, courtesy a better net run rate than the Kings XI Punjab.
Earlier, Pandey proved the saying ‘fortune favours the brave’ true as he latched on to the life provided by RP Singh when he was on two and struck 10 fours and four sixes en route his blistering 73-ball 114-run innings, the second century in this edition of the IPL.
The 19-year-old stitched a crucial 55-run partnership with Van der Merwe (23 off 18) for the first wicket to set the platform for the big score after Kumble won the toss and elected to bat.
The Royal Challengers were dealt an early blow when Jacques Kaliis gave a simple catch to T. Suman at square leg off the bowling off RP Singh in the innings’ second over.
The Bangalore side could have been in further trouble in the very next over had RP not dropped Pandey off Harris at third man.
============================================
When you ask 18-year-old Manish Pandey what it felt like to win the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, he answers: “Just the fact that I was chosen for the Cup was exciting. Winning was great.”
Pandey, though
originally hailing from Nainital in Uttarakhand, has been a resident of Bangalore on and off since the last eight years and has moved to the city permanently three years back. Pandey’s father is in the armed forces, and he has lived in various cities all over the country before he came to Bangalore to train in cricket, “because my father wanted me to be a cricketer.”
And quite a cricketer he has become. Currently chosen to play for the Mumbai IPL team under the captaincy of Sachin Tendulkar, Pandey says he would like to give his best to the game. Till then he’s riding high on his World Cup success where he made two half centuries and a 30 not out.