Johannesburg, Sept. 22: The skill and experience of Anil Kumble and the precocious talent of Virat Kohli took the Royal Challengers Bangalore to the semifinals of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament with a six-wicket win over the Highveld Lions on Tuesday night.
Bangalore restricted the Lions to 159 for six in their 20 overs and reached the winning target with six balls to spare in a match which was effectively a quarter-final, with the winners assured of joining Group B winners, South Australian Redbacks, in the last four.
At the Wanderers Stadium, Bangalore captain Kumble, 39, produced a superb spell of one for 13 in four overs, putting a brake on what had been a fast Lions scoring rate and dismissing Lions danger man Alviro Petersen.
Kohli, 21, made an audacious 49 not out off 29 balls to see the Indian Premier League team home on net run rate after they finished tied on points with the Lions and Mumbai Indians.
Meanwhile, in a one-sided encounter Isuru Udana took a hat-trick as the Wayamba Elevens finished their CLT20 campaign with a 74-run win over the Central Stags in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday. Wayamba could only score 144 for six in their 20 overs but it proved enough as Udana and unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis sent the New Zealand team plunging to 16 for five. They were all out for 70 in 15.3 overs.
The first blow was struck by Mendis, who shared the new ball with Udana. Mendis trapped Stags captain Jamie How. Udana deceived Brad Patton with a slower fourth ball of the next over, with the batsman playing too early and popping the ball up in the air for ’keeper Perera to run around to take an easy catch.
Scores: Lions 159/6 (Petersen 45, Vinay 2/23, Kumble 1/13) lost to RCB 160/4 (Kohli 49 n.o., Pandey 44); Wayamba 144/6 (Mubarak 30, Mason 2/16) bt Central Districts 70 (Griggs 19, Mendis 3/14, Udana 3/22).