5: RCB vs DD

The first weekend fixture of IPL's 5th edition saw a couple of the pre-tournament favourites come up against each other in the Garden city's first match. The crowd were as loud as ever and will have been relieved to see their side get off to the perfect start as at times they had seemed in trouble.

Sehwag called the toss correctly and elected to field, knowing that the pitch was unlikely to deteriorate. Bangalore made a good start on a pitch with plenty of pace as Andrew McDonald, who may well lose his place as Gayle is certain to feature when match fit, crunched some boundaries on either side of the wicket. He eventually fell to the last ball of the powerplay at 46/2 following some tight overs from Morkel and Yadav. Delhi consolidated their strong position by removing a couple of Banglore's domestic stars in Kohli and Tiwary and with the score at 59/4 in the 9th over, DD were well on top. However, from there Bangalore put together some decent partnerships to claw their way back into the contest as Vinay Kumar made for a good partner for the star of the innings, and in the end the match, AB de Villiers. Delhi will have been pleased with their work for the majority of the innings and at 91/5 at the end of the 13th over a very chaseable 140 or under looked on the cards. Yet AB's innings was just what RCB needed as he manipulated the field well and, as he often does, scored runs to all parts of the ground, even reverse hitting a Pathan full toss over the keeper's head for 6. His 64* came from 42 balls and proved decisive, but at the half way mark Delhi would have felt they were very much still in it, following a good showing from debutant kiwi Doug Bracewell who swung the ball throughout and took 3-32.

In response, Delhi started badly as they lost talisman and captain Sehwag to his first ball after Finch had flayed round Zaheer in the same over. Naman Ojha and Finch played hands in giving the Daredevils hope but the game was effectively ended by the spell of Muralitharan, a new signing for RCB. He dismissed both the set batsman and kept the rest guessing with a mix of off-breaks and doosras, marking his RCB debut with a well controlled 4-0-25-3. DDs failed to get going in their innings as the unsung side of RCBs side, the bowlers, were on top of their game as the likes of McDonald, Vettori and Kumar all proved difficult to hit. Some late hitting from Irfan Pathan was not enough this time round for Delhi as they fell plenty short at 137/7, having struggled ever since Murali's spell.

The difference in the match was AB's innings, rightly gaining him MoM, and Delhi will be frustrated that they were unable to turn a good start into a win against a Gayle-less RCB. Bangalore look a far more mortal side without his name on the team sheet and it puts extra pressure on the big guns in Kohli and de Villiers, luckily for RCB AB played a crucial innings and Murali stopped DD getting into the game from then on.