BRAVO'S BLAZZING BATTING LEADS MUMBAI TO VICTORY

Dwayne Bravo smashed an entertaining half-century to help the Mumbai Indians to a crushing eight-wicket victory over the Kings XI Punjab - a win that lifts them to fourth in the Indian Premier League table.
The West Indies all-rounder needed just 59 balls for his 70 and shared an unbroken 82-run stand with Sachin Tendulkar (41 not out) to help their side reach the 120 target set by their opponents with more than three overs to spare.
Only Sunny Sohal (43) put up any resistance for Punjab as stingy bowling from Harbhajan Singh and JP Duminy, who conceded just nine and 15 runs respectively in their four-over spells, and three run-outs helped set up the win.
Mumbai were on top from the time they were asked to bowl first in Pretoria with Dhawal Kulkarni tempting Simon Katich (nought) into a swing across the line that was top-edged to Harbhajan at mid-off.
Irfan Pathan also went without troubling the scorers when he was sloppily run-out by Bravo leaving Punjab at 22 for two.
Sohal then showed dramatic improvisation with his shot selection as he planted three sixes and five fours in his 23-ball stay before he too was run-out, Tendulkar this time effecting the breakthrough with a direct hit from extra cover.
Kumar Sangakkara (eight) and Wilkin Mota looked to consolidate, but the dismissal of the Sri Lankan, cleaned up by Harbhajan in the final over before the strategy break, really put the nail in for Punjab.
It was 70 for four at that stage and the introduction of Duminy brought another two wickets in the form of Mota (four) and Yuvraj Singh (12), both going in the 12th over, as Karan Goel (20 not out) helped his side reach 119 for nine.
In response, Mumbai were handed an early reprieve when Pathan dropped Bravo on nought with a tough return chance, before Brett Lee had Sanath Jayasuriya (four) snapped up by Mota at third man.
But Bravo took full advantage, with his innings taking off in the fifth over when he blasted Shanthakumaran Sreesanth for 21.
The introduction of Piyush Chawla led to a second dismissal, that of Ajinkya Rahane (one) trapped leg before wicket.
However, it was only a temporary reprieve as Tendulkar joined Bravo, who reached his 50 in 35 balls, and plundered the Punjab attack to all corners of Supersport Park.
The half-century stand was raised not long after in 37 deliveries as the pair eased home with more than three overs to spare.

TAYLOR'S SPECTACULAR BATTING DISPLAY WON THE MATCH FOR BANGLAORE

When they last faced off against each other, they were the bottom placed teams, and though they were still the bottom placed teams today, Bangalore was in with a chance of making the semi-finals, while the only semis Kolkata could dream of were the ones in next year's tournament.

However, Kolkata had one advantage over Bangalore: they had nothing to lose. Both teams went in with some changes, with Kolkata giving a chance to Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis and David Hussey, while Bangalore brought back Jesse Ryder in the place of Roelof van der Merwe.

Kolkata's openers were Saurav Ganguly and Brendon McCullum, but with great things expected of Ganguly - especially after his last performance - he faltered, and fell for just 4 runs in the third over, to a good delivery by Vinay Kumar that moved away from him. Kolkata sent in Arindam Ghosh at number 3, but the experiment backfired when he edged a Vinay Kumar bouncer to Boucher, and departed for just 7, leaving Kolkata at 21 for 2 in 4.2 overs. That brought David Hussey in for his first match of the tournament this year, and he combined well with McCullum to provide some solidity to Kolkata. Their partnership moved from solid to threatening with Hussey not afraid to play his shots and McCullum finding his long-lost batting form, but as has been the case with Kolkata right through the tournament, it was nipped in the bud before it could flower completely. B Akhil did his team a huge favour by uprooting Hussey's middle stump. Hussey, however, had played his part scoring 43 off 27 balls. Another debutant - Angelo Mathews - then joined his captain with Kolkata at 91 for 3 in 13.2 overs.

McCullum continued to hold one end up, and opened his shoulders to muscle two consecutive sixes and reach a much cherished first fifty in the tournament in the 17th over. Anil Kumble then bowled a splendid 18th over, conceding just 4 runs and scalping Angelo Mathews, to pull things back a bit for the Royal Challengers. However, after rotten form and rotten luck, today finally proved to be McCullum's day and he unfurled all the shots in the book, and quite a few out of it too - including consecutive scoops over the wicket-keeper's head for fours - to take his side to a very satisfying 173 for 4. Kolkata had taken 36 runs off the last 2 overs, and McCullum had scored 25 off 10 balls, to end up unbeaten on 84 off 64 balls - truly a captain's knock.

Bangalore's openers were Jesse Ryder and Jacques Kallis, and they got off to a steady rather than frenetic start. But while chasing a large total, a steady start was not enough. Kallis in particular, seemed unable to get a move on or to rotate the strike, and the asking rate climbed past 9 an over very soon. He finally perished in the 9th over when McCullum pulled off a blinder, flinging himself to his left to pluck Kallis' drive out of thin air. He had made 32 off 34 balls, but scored 22 of his runs from boundaries, and played too many dot balls. The mounting asking rate, did Ryder in and he fell in the next over to a wild heave that flew off the outside edge to Ganguly at third man. That meant Bangalore went into the break with two new batsmen at the crease in Ross Taylor and Robin Uthappa. The score was 70 for 2, and with a required run-rate of over 10 for Bangalore, Kolkata held a slight advantage.

The curse of the strategy break struck Bangalore when Robin Uthappa holed out to deep square leg in the eleventh over. He couldn't have picked out the man better if he had been giving catching practice in the nets.

However, just when Kolkata looked to be well and truly on top, Ross Taylor - who had had a forgettable tournament so far - exploded. Dravid gave him good support, and they put together a 48 run partnership in 4.4 overs before Dravid fell to old nemesis Ajantha Mendis in the 16th over. With Boucher joining Taylor, Bangalore needed 52 runs off the final 4 overs - do-able but difficult.

However, with Ross Taylor playing like a man possessed, the difficulty was scaled down over by over, until just 5 were needed off the final over to be bowled by Angelo Mathews. A leg-bye off the first ball brought Taylor on strike, and he promptly deposited the ball for one of the most massive sixes to clinch victory for Bangalore by 6 wickets. Taylor had played a jaw-dropping innings of 81 from just 33 balls.

Kolkata were left wondering what more they could do to win a match. They had done everything that could be expected of them: Having been inserted on a difficult pitch, they had weathered some difficult initial overs, their captain had played a superb knock, and they had put up a sizeable total - and yet they lost. They are living out Murphy's Law at the moment, and everything that can go wrong for them is doing so.

Today it was the spectacular return to form of Ross Taylor.

Turning Point of the Match: Ishant Sharma's final over, the 18th of the match. Taylor hit him for 2 fours and Boucher smashed a six to take 19 off it, and bring the equation down to a manageable 21 off 2 overs.

Man of the Match: Ross Taylor, for playing what has undoubtedly been Bangalore's best innings in the tournament so far. He scored his fifty off 24 balls and scored a further 30 runs from 7 balls, to turn the match on its head.