They left out a batsman and brought in a bowler. They also left out their best bowler of the season, Muttiah Muralitharan, and brought in an allrounder, Tillakaratne Dilshan. But Royal Challengers Bangalore, having lost their previous three games due to poor bowling, still ended up conceding more than nine runs an over. Robin Uthappa did most of the scoring with a power-packed half-century at the top of the order with Jesse Ryder and Marlon Samuels chipping in with smaller contributions.
Warriors were away from the moment Uthappa hit Dilshan for 13 in the second over with a slog-swept six and a cut for four. Ryder took on Zaheer Khan in the third over with a couple of boundaries down the ground. The opening partnership was worth 63 by the seventh over before Harshal Patel, in for S Aravind, had Ryder top-edging a pull to Mayank Agarwal in the deep.
Uthappa had a couple of let-offs in the eighth over against left-arm spinner KP Appanna. Consecutive appeals for caught-behind were turned down as Uthappa looked to paddle the bowler fine, with there being doubt as to whether there was bat involved. Uthappa responded by carting Appanna for six over wide long-on.
By now, Uthappa was in complete control. He made room to lift Harshal over extra cover and guided him just past the wicketkeeper for fours. He timed three consecutive reverse-sweeps off Dilshan, with two of them beating short third man.
He was put down by Appanna at long-off, a tough diving chance off Vinay Kumar in the 12th over but departed in the next as he sliced Daniel Vettori to point. Warriors went at the same rate of around nine an over after Uthappa's dismissal with Samuels smashing the spinners for a couple of sixes. Vinay bowled a tight last over but Warriors had already got enough to set the home side a challenging chase.
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