Punjab beat Bangalore by 4 wickets

Punjab's Nitin Saini celebrates his fifty runs against Bangalore
during the IPL 5 match in Bengaluru on Wednesday. (PTI Photo)
BANGALORE: What should have been a one-sided affair at the M
Chinnaswamy Stadium, turned into a cliffhanger. Still, it was the
visiting team, not for the first time this season, that finally
emerged on top on Tuesday night. Needing 159 to win, Punjab, cruising
for the most part, nearly made a hashof it, but then with two runs
needed off the final two deliveries, found their man in Piyush Chawla,
who slammed a six off Vinay Kumar to dash Bangalore's hopes.
It should never have come to that. Not after Praveen Kumar had come up
with figures of 4-0-8-0 after stand-in skipper David Hussey had won
the toss and asked Bangalore tobat. Nor should it have come so close
after Punjab, eventually needing 159for a win -- thanks to that man
Chris Gayle again -- were 146 for 2 from 16overs. Some bad running
made it a tense affair for the nearly-packed house but then Bangalore
were always up against it once Mandeep Singh (43, 30b, 6x4, 1x6),
Nitin Saini (50, 36b, 5x4) and Hussey (45, 29b, 2x4, 4x6) had got into
the groove.
Once Praveen, who got appreciable movement off the track, was done,
Gayle took over, smashing a sublime 42-ball 71 in the company of Virat
Kohli, who finally got some runs on the board, a breezy 45.
Bangalore lost Mayank Agarwal in the very second over and then crawled
to a mere 33 in the Powerplay when Praveen was in operation. Actually,
the slow and steady part extended to the first 12 overs as Bangalore
struggled to get arun-rate of over 6.
Gayle then took it upon himself to setthings right for the hosts. He
entertained the crowd with a flurry of sixes and boundaries as he
raced to his fifty off 32 balls. The big left-hander's innings was
studded with four smashing sixes and six boundaries. The one that
stood out was the one that disappeared over the roof off Abhishek
Nayar. With Kohli too coming good, the duo put on 119 in 83 balls for
the second wicket as crowd got its rewards.
But just when Bangalore looked to be getting on with it, veteran Ahzar
Mahmood put the breaks on, claiming three wickets including Gayle, AB
de Villiers (17) and Andrew McDonald (9). Meantime, leggie Chawla, who
was otherwise expensive, accounted for Kohli, thus ensuring that
Bangalore ended poorly, just as they had started.