
Delhi: Royal Challengers Bangalore have put one foot into the IPL 6 play-offs by registering a narrow four-run victory over Delhi Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Friday. With their eighth win, RCB now have 16 points from 13 matches and are fourth in the points table, below Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. For this, they have Virat Kohli and Jaydev Unadkat to thank.
Having won the toss and getting Chris Gayle (4) early, Delhi might have thought they had taken massive strides but that was not the case as Kohli (99 off 58 balls) and AB de Villiers (32 off 17) were still to bat. Neither can send the ball as long and as hard as the Jamaican but they can be equally effective while being orthodox and innovative at the same time. Kohli and de Villiers massacred the Delhi bowlers in a rollicking 94-run stand off just 40 balls, 84 of which came in the last five. Their fourth-wicket partnership drove RCB to 183 for 4.
While Kohli's innings was a mature one, de Villiers got the perfect launch pad to go after the bowling from ball one. Losing Gayle and Cheteshwar Pujara (17) early, Kohli shunned the lofted strokes for the early part of his innings and got to his fifty off 44 balls. But his attacking play came to the fore thereafter as he jumped from 51 to 99 in the just 14 deliveries, adding five fours and four

11:28 PM, May 10, 2013