Match 18: Highveld Lions v RCB

September 21, Johannesburg: At the inaugural edition of CLT20 played last year, Royal Challengers Bangalore failed to progress to the semi-final stage of the competition. A win tonight against Highveld Lions has propelled them to the semi-finals where the other team from their group, South Australian Redbacks, have already made their way.
There was bad news for RCB before the game started with Jacques Kallis being unavailable for selection. Dillon du Preez was brought in as a replacement. Alviro Petersen, captain of the Lions, won the toss and opted to bat first.
This was the same wicket which had seen the Redbacks post a total of 191 in the earlier game of the day and Guyana get within 15 runs of that total. But the way the RCB bowled and fielded in this game, there was no chance of the Lions emulating that performance.
Vinay Kumar struck early blows for RCB, accounting for Jonathan Vandiar and Richard Cameron off consecutive deliveries in the fourth over of the innings. Vaughn van Jaarsveld put on an exciting partnership with Petersen but was run out in the eighth over with the score at 73. Petersen was snared by Kumble for 45 and at 100 for 4 it appeared that the Lions would fall short of expectation in a crunch game.
Kumble was at his best in this game, giving away just 13 runs in his four-over spell. The Lions’ batsmen struggled to get going against him and had it not been for Neil McKenzie’s steady 39-run knock and some late blows by Robert Frylinck (22* off 9) the Lions would have not even managed the 159 runs that showed on the scoreboard at the Wanderers Stadium.
In the game against Mumbai Indians on Sunday, Rahul Dravid remained unbeaten on 71, but his side failed to pull off a victory. Today Dravid, opening with Manish Pandey, played a little more aggressively. The duo put on 53 runs for the opening wicket before Dravid was bowled by Aaron Phangiso. Pandey, eager not to let the run-rate slip after Dravid’s wicket, hit a couple of boundaries but was out caught at long off. He made 44. At this stage RCB had the upper hand, requiring 75 from 51 deliveries with some big hitters still to follow.
RCB then lost a couple of quick wickets and with 43 required off 24 deliveries, the odds suddenly favoured the Lions. But Virat Kohli, whose late heroics in the match against MI went in vain, plundered Ethan O’Reilly for eighteen runs in the 17th over. After that the result was never in doubt and RCB reached the target with 6 wickets to spare and became the first IPL team to reach the semi-finals of CLT20.

Brief Scores – Royal Challengers Bangalore 160 for 4 (Virat Kohli 49*, Manish Pandey 44, Cliffie Deacon 1-21) beat  
Highveld Lions 159 for 6 (Alviro Petersen 45, Neil McKenzie 39, Vinay Kumar 2-23) by 6 wickets
Man-of-the-match – Virat Kohli for his swashbuckling 49* off 29 balls that saw RCB qualify for the semi-final stage of the competition.