Bangalore solidify play-off chances

The Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered a late panic but managed to hold on for a four-run win against the Delhi Daredevils, with Jaydev Unadkat taking five wickets to halt the death overs charge on Friday.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered a late panic but managed to hold on for a four-run win against the Delhi Daredevils, with Jaydev Unadkat taking five wickets to halt the death overs charge on Friday.

Bangalore had scored 183 for four in their innings, with skipper Virat Kohli lighting the way with a wonderful 99 off 58 balls. Delhi looked out for the count, but a late effort from Morne Morkel and Irfan Pathan saw them get 15 of the 19 runs required in the final over.

RCB would not have had such a good score to defend if it weren't for Kohli and AB de Villiers, as the batsmen above them failed to capitalise after getting set, with the first wicket, that of Chris Gayle, falling with the score on six.

Cheteshwar Pujara also struggled to deliver, and was bowled by Siddarth Kaul in the fifth over for 17. This allowed Kohli and Moises Henriques to push the score to 89, before the Aussie was caught and bowled by Shahbaz Nadeem for 26.

De Villiers and his skipper then made sure of a defendable score, putting on 94 together, of which 62 came of Kohli's bat. He struck four sixes and 10 fours, but was unlucky to be run out on the final ball of the knock, coming back for a second to get his ton.

Delhi's fragile batting order were not up to the task until the end, with Unmukt Chand top-scoring with 41 before Morkel and Pathan nearly ruined the RCB party. Unadkat was superb with the ball, removing veterans Mahela Jayawardene and Virender Sehwag early on.

Chand and Ben Rohrer joined forces once David Warner was sent packing by Henriques for just four, and they took the score to 118 for four in the 15th over. It still didn't seem likely that they'd get a win, but the final three overs saw 17, 14 and 15 runs scored.

Unadkat was the saviour in the final over, removing a rampant Morkel with an in-swinging peach. All Umesh Yadav could do with the final ball was hit a four, as RCB celebrated avoiding the near miss.

The Royal Challengers solidified their fourth place with the win, while the Daredevils, already without a chance at the play-offs remained second-from the bottom.

<b>Delhi Daredevils:</b> David Warner, Virender Sehwag, Mahela Jayawardene, Ben Rohrer, Unmukt Chand, Kedar Jadhav, Irfan Pathan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Morne Morkel, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav.

<b>Royal Challengers Bangalore:</b> Chris Gayle, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Saurabh Tiwary, Moises Henriques, Ravi Rampaul, Vinay Kumar, Syed Mohammad Jamaluddin, Jaidev Unadkat, Murali Kartik.