Rahul Dravid held the wheel grimly as his ship bobbed in deep waters before going down for good. His hard-fought 66 could not save Bangalore Royal Challengers from a six-wicket loss in a disastrous batting display against Kings XI Punjab.
After being put in, Bangalore's score of 126 was a no-show and while Punjab took their time, they chased it down with minimum fuss in 18.2 overs. Shaun Marsh impressed again, scoring 39 runs that put Bangalore out of the game right away. With it, Kings XI moved to second place in the IPL points tally.
Five ducks dotted Bangalore's innings at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Two of them were registered in the first over of the game. Sreesanth produced startling movement with the new ball, first getting Wasim Jaffer caught behind with an outswinger, and Cameron White bowled next ball with an inswinger.
To complete a hat trick of ducks, Jacques Kallis ran himself out after a mix-up with Virat Kohli. In the middle overs, Piyush Chawla continued to impress with his loop and turn. He bagged Mishbah-ul Haq, Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan in a spell --- all while Dravid stood and watched the innings fall Dravid made his runs from 51 balls with nine fours and a six and was the ninth out on 124, caught at third man. Royal Challengers currently lie at seventh place, ahead only of Hyderabad in terms of points, and are in desperate need of a few wins to stay alive in this competition.
Kings XI are tied with top-placed Rajasthan Royals in terms of points --- they have 10 each now. Their batting still hasn't clicked, but the young Marsh is setting that right. They're hot in the bowling department, with Irfan Pathan's 12 wickets leading the tournament, followed by Piyush Chawla and Sreesanth on eight each.