The Mohali juggernaut continued to roll as they drubbed Bangalore by six wickets to register their fifth consecutive win in the Indian Premier League. Yuvraj Singh’s team has now moved to second place in the tournament behind Jaipur. After Rahul Dravid played the lone hand to take Bangalore to 126, Mohali cruised to victory with eight balls to spare at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Monday. It was a disastrous batting show from Bangalore as they were bowled out for a paltry 126 in 19.2 overs with Dravid playing a captain’s knock, scoring 66 off 51 balls. Bangalore, whose batting has been disappointing throughout the competition, had five ducks and only two scores in double-figures in their innings. However, Bangalore defending the modest total started off well with Zaheer Khan scalping James Hopes in the second over for five. But Ramnaresh Sarwan, making a comeback in the playing eleven, along with Shaun Marsh batted the home side out of the game with a 54-run stand. Sarwan slammed four fours and one six in his 31 before Praveen Kumar got him caught behind. And when skipper Yuvraj fell for one, Bangalore’s hopes came to life again but Marsh continued his prolific form to come up with another impressive show. The Aussie hit four boundaries and one six in his 34-ball 39 before he was cleaned up by Zaheer in the 15th over. But it was a little too late in the day for Bangalore as Mahela Jayawardene (17 not out) and Irfan Pathan (17 not out) scored the remaining runs without much trouble. After Bangalore were put in to bat on a pitch that assisted seamers, the home team got off to a disastrous start. S Sreesanth’s strikes in the first over and an unfortunate run out reduced them to 15-3. With three of his top four batsmen falling for no score, Dravid stemmed the rot as he along with the young Virat Kohli strung a 54-run stand to script a recovery. But after Kohli fell in the 13th over, Piyush Chawla removed Misbah-ul-Haq (eight) and Praveen Kumar (zero) in a space of two deliveries and then cleaned up Zaheer (zero) in his next over as Dravid watched his team crumble from the other and The home side were unable to recover from the early jolts as Sreesanth (2-16), Chawla (3-25) and Pathan (1-13) came up with fantastic spells to rip through Bangalore. Yuvraj’s decision to field was justified at the onset itself as Sreesanth bowled a deadly opening over to set the cat among the pigeons in the Bangalore camp. Sreesanth induced Wasim Jaffer (zero) to edge the fourth ball of the game to wicketkeeper Uday Kaul, who took the place behind the stumps in the absence of Kumar Sangakkara. The seamer then brought the next ball in to take out the middle stump, sending back Cameron White (zero), whose first knock in the IPL lasted only one ball. A misunderstanding between Kohli and Jacques Kallis (zero) saw the later being the run-out in the fourth over with Bangalore tottering at 15-3. Kohli and Dravid batted with caution ensuring there were no further hiccups at the start as Bangalore lingered to 50 in the 10th over. Kohli trying to get a move on failed to pull off the attempted big shots as Mohali kept a tight leash on the scoring-rate. India’s under-19 captain got a reprieve when James Hopes floored a skier off Sreesanth’s last ball of the game but it did not prove costly as an ordinary shot off Pathan in the next over ended Kohli’s tenure for 34, which took 36 balls. Dravid then stood tall but his heroic knock could not avoid Bangalore’s fifth loss in seven games.
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