Kallis gets RCB off the mark

Bangalore Royal Challengers defeated Kings XI Punjab by eight wickets in an Indian Premier League match on Tuesday.
Royal Challengers reached the victory target of 204 runs with seven balls to spare to log their first points in the tournament.
Jacques Kallis remained unbeaten on 89 while Robin Uthappa scored 51. Manish Pandey Contributed 38.
At the halfway mark it seemed as if Kings XI Punjab had scored enough to record their first victory of the tournament, but Royal Challengers Bangalore went after the target with such vengeance that Punjab were punished for trespassing on private property. At the forefront of the chase was the reborn Twenty20 basher Jacques Kallis, who smashed an unbeaten 89, and playing valuable and entertaining supporting roles were Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa.
One of Bangalore's adopted sons, Ross Taylor, wasn't around to send the ball soaring like he's done many times, but the power hitting from Kallis, Uthappa and Pandey more than made up for his absence. Batsmen with strong forearms thumped the ball with amazing velocity to fetch massive sixes, particularly over the on side, to deflate the bowling side and cut the target down to size.
Although Punjab were overpowered by a better batting side on that day, they could have restricted Bangalore had they bowled better lengths. The spinners in particular were guilty for dropping the ball on a length which sat up nicely for the batsmen to rock back and swing their arms. The fuller lengths didn't work and that was illustrated by one particular over from Sreesanth, which went for 25. The only way to restrict them was to either bowl yorkers or hurry them up with pace and bounce but Punjab didn't possess the bowlers to do either.
SCORES IN BRIEF
KINGS XI PUNJAB: 203 for 3 (Bopara 77, Bisla 73, Jayawardene 26)
BANGALORE ROYAL CHALLENGERS: 204 for 2 (Pandey 38, Kallis 89 not out, Uthappa 51)
Result: Bangalore Royal Challengers won by eight wickets.
Man-of-the-match: Jaques Kallis.