Robin Uthappa (68 off 38 balls) took Royal Challengers Bangalore to a 36- run victory over the Chennai Super Kings in Match 18 of the IPL 2010 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Royal Challengers rattled up 171/5 and then contained Chennai Super Kings for 135/7 in 20 overs. 
Orange Cap holder Jacques Kallis looked shaky today. His run-spree finally ended when he was dismissed for a 17-ball 19 in the fifth over. Chennai Super Kings who started off very well, lost the way from the 15th over, thanks to Robin Uthappa, who single handedly changed the script with some bold batting. Royal Challengers Bangalore blasted 41 runs in the last two overs with Uthappa all guns blazing. The hard-hitting Uthappa, dropped at 5 and 25, made most of those chances, when he went berserk in the 19th over, clouting 4, 6, 6, 6 as medium pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji leaked as many as 24 runs in that over. Uthappa’s blitzkrieg overshadowed off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan, Sudip Tyagi and Albie Morkel splendid bowling. Muralitharan was outstanding as he scalped the wickets of Rahul Dravid (bowled), Manish Pandey (caught in the deep) and Virat Kohli (stumped) to finish with figures of 3/25. But Muralitharan snatched the Purple Cap for his performance, from his fellow countryman Chaminda Vaas (Deccan Chargers) to emerge as the highest wicket-taker of the tournament with nine wickets.
The Chennai Super Kings batting fell apart chasing 172 runs for victory. Swing bowler Praveen Kumar dismissed Parthiv Patel in the first over. But Royal Challengers Bangalore dealt a severe blow to Chennai Super Kings’ hopes in the 10th over when Rahul Dravid ran out the dangerous Mathew Hayden for 32. It was a brilliant throw from short covers to the non-striker’s end that caught Hayden off guard. The impressive Vinay Kumar made it 59/3 in the same over by packing off Tasmanian George Bailey (18). The medium-pacer scalped his second wicket by having Chennai Super Kings skipper Suresh Raina caught at deep third man. The match slipped further away from Chennai Super Kings’s grip when leg spinner Anil Kumble sent back Murali Vijay (74/5). Chennai Super Kings could never recover to lose their second match in succession.
Match report courtesy Adfactors PR.
