De Villiers steers Bangalore to win against Gujarat in first qualifier

Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen AB de Villiers and Iqbal Abdullah have guided their team to a 4-wicket win against Gujarat Lions in the first qualifier of Indian Premier League.

Bangalore coasted to the victory with 10 balls to spare to seal a berth in the final.

Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator on Wednesday. The winners will then take on Gujarat Lions in the second qualifiers in a fight for the remaining spot in the final.

Chasing 159 for the win, Royal Challengers were off to miserable start at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday.

Gujarat seamer Dhawal Kulkarni tore through the Bangalore top order, claiming the wickets of both the openers, Virat Kohli (0) and Chris Gayle (9). The visitors were reduced to 29-5 in the sixth over.

Bangalore bowlers had three Royal Challengers batsmen out for ducks - Kohli, Lokesh Rahul and Sachin Baby.

De Villiers then took charge and took the onus of steering the team to victory with good support from Stuart Binny (21) and Iqbal Abdulla (33 not out).

The Proteas master blaster remained unbeaten on 79 off 47 balls, cracking five fours and as many sixes.

He patiently paced his innings according to the situation and broke free after the 15th over.

Abdullah and de Villiers hammered 16 and 15 runs respectively in the 15th and 16th overs to keep the asking rate in sight. They needed 32 runs off the last 23 balls.

Halfway through the 18th over, the brisk runscoring from the duo saw the required runs draw level with the remaining balls (15). They went on to seal the victory in the penultimate over.

They fashioned an unbroken partnership of 91 off 52 balls for the seventh wicket.

Kulkarni returned 4-14 for Gujarat while Jadeja claimed 2-21.

Earlier, Gujarat Lions, too, were off to a disastrous start but managed to set Bangalore a target of 159 runs thanks to a fine knock from Dwayne Smith (73).

After openers Brendon McCullum (1) and Aaron Finch (4) departed in the second over off left-arm spinner Abdulla, Smith came to Gujarat's rescue.

His 41-ball innings was laced with five boundaries and six sixes.

With just nine runs on the board in the fourth over, Gujarat had lost three wickets including that of skipper Suresh Raina.

Following the collapse at the top, Smith hit two boundaries in the fifth over to kickstart the innings.

After Smith departed off Yuzvendra Chahal, the joint top wicket-taker with Shane Watson (20), Dinesh Karthik (26) and Eklavya Dwivedi (19) and Kulkarni (10) gave the final push.

Just four of the Gujarat batsmen managed double-digit scores as they were bowled out for a subpar 158.

Watson was the pick of the Bangalore bowlers returning 4-29 while Chris Jordan and Abdulla chipped in with a couple of wicket each 2-38.

Brief Scores:

Royal Challenger Bangalore: 159-6 in 18.2 overs (Abraham De Villiers 79, Iqbal Abdullah 33; Dhawal Kulkarni 4-14, Ravindra Jadeja 2-21)

Gujarat Lions: 158 in 20 overs (Dwayne Smith 73, Dinesh Karthik 26; Shane Watson 4-29, Chris Jordan 2-26)

Result: Royal Challengers Bangalore win by four wickets.

Man-of-the-Match: AB de Villiers (RCB)