Kallis stars in Royal Challengers seven-wicket win

Mumbai, March 21 : Jacques Kallis struck a fine unbeaten 66 as Royal Challengers Bangalore romped home to a convincing seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here Saturday.

Royal Challengers made 155 for three in 19.1 overs after their bowlers did a decent job by restricting Mumbai Indians to 151 for nine in 20 overs at the Brabourne Stadium.

For Royal Challengers it was their third consecutive win from four matches while Mumbai Indians suffered their first loss in three matches.

Chasing 152, Kallis and young Manish Pandey (40) gave the Royal Challengers a great start with their 85-run partnership for the fist wicket. Pandey completely dominated the proceedings during his 27-ball stay, hitting three fours and two sixes.

Kallis on the other end played a composed knock as his 66 came off 55 balls and was studded with 10 fours. Kallis was also adjudged as the Man of the Match.

With Robin Uthappa (23), Kallis added 31 runs for the second wicket, and took Royal Challengers on the threshold of a win. The veteran South African all-rounder added another 20 runs with Virat Kohli (17) and with Eoin Morgan (7 not out) took the Bangalore team to home.

Earlier, fast bowler R.Vinay Kumar (3/25) struck thrice in an over, picking up the important wickets of Ambati Rayudu (3), Sachin Tendulkar (25) and Dwayne Bravo (1), to restrict Mumbai Indians to a modest total. South African fast bowler Dale Steyn also picked up three for 26.

Mumbai Indians batsmen failed to put up a decent partnership despite getting good starts. Saurabh Tiwary (25), Rajagopal Satish (24) and Keiron Pollar (21) came up with useful contributions while Zaheer Khan struck a quickfire 23 off just nine balls as Mumbai Indians got to a decent total.