The Hindu : Sport : Yuvraj’s wicket was crucial: Kumble

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Yuvraj’s wicket was crucial: Kumble

— PHOTO: AFP

FINE START: Anil Kumble, who took over the reins from Kevin Pietersen, led Royal Challengers Bangalore to a thrilling win.

Durban: Yuvraj Singh had almost single-handedly won the match and if he had stayed there five overs more, the game would have been all but over, feels Royal Challenger Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble.

“The ball was stopping and coming and Yuvraj of course likes pace on the ball and I wanted to take the pace off and that worked. Yuvi was going great guns and if he had been five overs more, probably the game was over and there on we really tightened screw,” Kumble said after the match.

Yuvraj Singh notched up the first hat-trick of second Premier League and also scored a blistering 33-ball 50 but still could not avoid Kings XI Punjab’s narrow nine-run defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore here on Friday.

Kumble gave credit to Roelof van der Merwe for posting such a competitive target even after losing three wickets in three balls.

Great game

“It was a great game. After losing three wickets in three balls, I thought Re (van der Merwe) batted fantastically to get us to 145 and everybody rallied around him and when we got to the score we really backed ourselves. It is a great show by the bowlers,” he said.

Merwe scored a quickfire 35 off 19 balls studded with three fours and three sixes to post a target of 146 to win against the Kings XI Punjab.

Brilliant over

Kumble also lavished praise on Praveen Kumar for his crucial over in the end. “It was tough to grip the ball because of the dew. We didn’t expect dew and Praveen is a quick bowler and has experience and he bowled brilliantly,” he said.

Kumble, who succeeded Kevin Pietersen as skipper, said they were improving with each game and hoped the winning streak will continue.

“We certainly have got better from the last game and in this game the intensity was brilliant, it showed in our batting and bowling, we are improving in every game and we hope the winning streak continues,” he said. Disappointed at the loss, Yuvraj Singh said the opponent was a better side on the given day. “We played good cricket but at the end they were better.

We bowled well, we had a good score to chase but we could not do that, hopefully we can do it next time,” he said. — PTI

SCOREBOARD

Royal Challengers Bangalore: J. Ryder c Jayawardene b Irfan 2 (5b), S. Goswami c Chawla b Abdulla 10 (14b), R. Bishnoi c Chawla b Abdulla 18 (14b, 1x4), J. Kallis b Yuvraj 27 (22b, 4x4), R. Uthappa c Katich b Yuvraj 19 (17b, 2x4), V. Kohli c Chawla b Irfan 16 (14b, 2x4), M. Boucher lbw b Yuvraj 2 (4b), R. van der Merwe c Irfan b Abdulla 35 (19b, 3x4, 3x6), Praveen (not out) 9 (7b, 1x4), A. Kumble b Abdulla 1 (3b), K. Appanna (not out) 0 (1b); Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-4) 6; Total (for nine wkts. in 20 overs) 145.

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-27, 3-38, 4-80, 5-80, 6-84, 7-128, 8-133, 9-136.

Kings XI Punjab bowling: Irfan 4-0-19-2, Malik 3-0-29-0, Abdulla 4-1-36-4, Powar 1-0-8-0, Chawla 4-0-29-0, Yuvraj 4-0-22-3.

Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj c Kallis b Kumble 50 (34b, 3x4, 4x6), K. Goel c Kohli b van der Merwe 20 (29b, 2x4), S. Katich (run out) 3 (5b), K. Sangakkara b Kumble 17 (23b, 2x4), M. Jayawardene c Kallis b van der Merwe 19 (15b, 2x4), Irfan c Kohli b Praveen 12 (9b, 2x4), P. Chawla b Praveen 3 (4b), R. Powar (not out) 0, T. Srivastava (not out) 0 (1b); Extras (b-4, lb-6, w-3) 13; Total (for seven wkts. in 20 overs) 137.

Fall of wickets: 1-70, 2-73, 3-84, 4-116, 5-129, 6-137, 7-137.

Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling: Praveen 4-0-27-2, Kallis 3-0-19-0, Ryder 4-0-24-0, van der Merwe 3-0-22-2, Kumble 4-0-25-2, Appanna 2-0-10-0.

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