Challengers humble Royals (beat the 2008 champion by 5 wickets)

Jaipur, April 14: Warne expected too much from his mostly inexperienced side, which crumbled under pressure in their crucial game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore here tonight.
The Royals were completely outplayed by the visiting team, who, after restricting their opponents to 130/6, finished the job in a clinical manner, thus registering a five-wicket win and virtually booked their place in the semifinal.
Kevin Pietersen, who was making a come-back in the side, made an impressive unbeaten 62 off 29 balls, while Robin Uthappa too continued his good run in the tournament with a fast paced 26 off 21 deliveries.
For Royals, their skipper Warne, Siddharth Trivedi and Kamran Khan chipped in with a wicket each.
Earlier, a well-planned effort by Royal Challengers’ bowlers proved too much for the home side, who could only manage a target of 130/6.
For the visiting side, Pankaj Singh, who was playing against his former team, picked up two wickets for 27 runs while Dale Steyn once again bowled aggressively to share a wicket each with Jacques Kallis and Vinay Kumar.
None of the Royals’ batsmen could pass the fifty mark and got out once getting set. A 58-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Adam Voges (28 off 27 balls) and Abhishek Raut (30 off 20 balls) took them to a respectable score.
In reply, Kamran Khan gave a perfect start for Royals by taking Kallis wicket in the second over of the innings, but Pietersen who replaced him seemed to be in a terrific form from the outset, hitting boundaries all round the ground.
Manish Pandey was undone by the slow delivery by Trivedi, giving a straight forward catch to Pathan in covers.
The in-form Uthappa, after supporting Pietersen, was beaten by Warne’s flight and Ojha did a sharp stumping to send the Banglorean back.
Pietersen was involved in a silly run-out with Virat Kohli, who did not leave his crease while the English batsman ran across the other end for a single. Kohli (14 off 13 balls) followed his teammate soon, but Ross Taylor (10 off 11 balls) and Rahul Dravid (4 off 3 balls) saw their side home without any further damage.