Gifted Duminy wins Cobras a cliffhanger by Rohit Sakunia

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Scorecard:	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Cape Cobras
Player:	P Kumar, JP Duminy, LRPL Taylor, RV Uthappa
Event:	Champions League 2009/10

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DateLine: 8th October 2009

 

If Champions League T20 needed a cricketing headstart to back a grand opening ceremony, this opening encounter had all the ingredients to make it that. If for the Royal Challengers it was Uthappa and Ross Taylor, Jean Paul Duminy was the one for the Cobras. He spit venom via his willow on the Challenger bowlers and finally a total which looked overwhelmingly good, when the first innings got over was overwhelmed comprehensively by the Cobras with two balls and as many as 5 batsman to spare.

 

Chasing an improbable 181 to win, the Cobras got off to the worst possible start losing Herschelle Gibbs for a blob in Praveen Kumar's first over. He knicked an outstanding outswinger straight to Mark Boucher. The initial nightmare continued as skipper Andrew Puttick followed Gibbs back to the dug-out soon, again squared up by Praveen Kumar who was in the midst of a fantastic first spell.

 

In walked Jean Paul Duminy, someone who had a very good IPL in South Africa but had since then failed to make a good impression in any format. He and Henry Davids made sure there were not many other hiccups to follow the two quick wickets. The duo combined to add 48 runs in 32 balls and brought back the Cobras applecart on track. Davids was also dropped in midst of this innings but finally he fell to a rank bad delivery from Vinay Kumar. Kumar threw one short, outside the off stump which was hit well by Davids but he failed to keep it on the ground and it went straight into the dependable hands of Virat Kohli.

 

Justin Ontong alongside Duminy made sure the run-rate does not fall apart. They added 41 in 26 balls and just when it looked that the match was slipping out of the hands of the Challengers, Van Der Merwe flummoxed Ontong. Merwe bowled one quick and full on middle and off to which Ontong made room to smack it over the bowler's head. He had a nice, hard swing at it but made no contact whatsoever and the ball spun and rattled the stumps.

 

Duminy on the other end was unmoved by all the wicket falls around him. Ke kept hitting the occasional, or rather the regular boundary and the run-rate was kept in check with the help of those. These small but lively 40-odd run partnerships also helped in keeping things alive. Such was the confidence of the Southpaw that he even reverse-swept Kumble when he returned for a new spell and then the huge six in the 17th over made sure that the game was now heading only one way.

 

Kumble's next over was taken for 11 runs which included a massive six from the left-hander's willow and the requirement from the last two overs read only 18. By this time Ryan Canning and Duminy had already added 60 runs and such was Duminy's impact on the partnership that Canning only had 20 out of the 60 scored. The wicketkeeper finally fell prey to a slower one from Praveen Kumar opening up the floodgates again. Duminy followed the wicket with a couple of boundaries to finish an over where-in Praveen Kumar hardly did anything wrong but such was the left-hander's day that anything he touched kissed the ropes.

 

Nine was now required of the last over and to everybody's surprise the leather was thrown to Vinay Kumar. The first ball was again a missed run-out chance. The Cobras now needed 8 off 5 and their man of the moment Duminy hit yet another maximum to get the equation in their favour. Finally he was left stranded at 99 as Rory Kleinveldt hit the winning runs but then his innings was probably woth much more than a ton.

 

Earlier in the evening, a new chapter in cricket began in a gala manner in front of an estimated crowd of 50,000 fans at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. After a grand opening ceremony, reminding one and all of the opening ceremony of the 2008 IPL at this very venue, Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble won the toss and opted to bat against Cape Cobras in the first match of the first Champions League Twenty20.

 

An ashtonishing assault in the end by Ross Taylor in addition to some brilliant batting by opener Robin Uthappa took the Royal Challengers Bangalore total to a whopping 180, 25 more than what the skipper said he wants his batsman to accumulate at the toss. Cape Cobras looked totally out of sorts and no matter what advantage they have had by playing together for a long period, it was very clear that for them adjusting to Indian conditions will still take some more time. It seemed that they bowled and fielded for the opposition. Even the usually brilliant Justin Ontong was seen dropping catches and the number of misfields were numerous.

 

Opening the batting, Uthappa and Kallis started cautiosly. The pitch looked sticky at that time and their patience was just, considering Charl Langeveldt was in his elements to start off. Langeveldt struck in his second over as a full pitched delivery lured Kallis into a booming drive, and he ended up only edging one to Canning.

 

Uthappa though was adamant in making it big and though he took his time to get going, once in his elements he did hit a few lusty blows. He paved the way for a big total via a 39 ball 51 and the Challengers rarely lost a plot after that. His sixes straight down the ground stood out in an innings of a lot of character for a player who is known to be belligerent always in his ways.

 

His fall brought in Virat Kohli to bat alongside Dravid and they continued the good work. Dravid hit a straight six of Claude Henderson, a bowler the Challengers took a special liking for. He then fell for a 24 ball 28, trying to attempt a second nonexistent run. Dravid's fall brought Taylor to the crease and what happened after that made sure Cape Cobras had their task cut out when they came out to chase.

 

Runs came in from all corners as Taylor began an assault on the Cobra attack. He looked like a hungry mangoose out to prey on the cobra. The right-hander hit four sixes and four boundaries in an innings which looked reminiscent of a few knocks from his willow in the IPL earlier this year. The sixes came from all corners of the park which only showed his prowess in the batting department.

 

The Cobras on the other hand seemed clearly overawed by the occasion and 50,000 red-shirts panicked them to all ends. They misfielded with alarming regularity and served up full tossed on a platter to Ross Taylor.