Bangalore win papers over the cracks

There were times tonight when Bangalore Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers felt like the resistible force and the movable object. Both sides came into the game with one win and four defeats behind them; both seemed afraid of victory. And, well though Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan bowled at the death, it seemed appropriate that the final nails were banged into the Hyderabadis' coffin by two poor legbefore decisions - one each by Billy Doctrove and Suresh Shastri.

Even then, there was time for a final twist as Anil Kumble, the most experienced man on either side, was hit for successive sixes by Sanjay Bangar with the Chargers requiring 18 off four balls. But each time the momentum appeared to swing one way in this match, it duly swung the other. "I thought, 'he can't do it again, can he?'" said Rahul Dravid, afterwards. He couldn't: Bangar managed just a single off the game's penultimate delivery and Arjun Yadav was unable to clear the ropes off the last.

Fireworks went off around the Chinnaswamy Stadium even as the batsmen completed their forlorn single and Bangalore will be hugely relieved. "I thought we deserved a bit of luck today," said Dravid. Perhaps. But the truth is his side could easily have lost.

In a match riddled with doubt, Deccan Chargers appeared to be on their way to a much-needed win of their own while VVS Laxman - finally doing a decent impersonation of a Twenty20 batsman - and the prodigiously gifted Rohit Sharma were adding 96 for the third wicket in 11.4 overs. But with 30 needed off 19 balls and Bangalore shoulders preparing to slump yet again, Rohit plonked one down Wasim Jaffer's throat at long-on, before Shahid Afridi fell to a stunning catch in the same position, this time by Dale Steyn.

Then came the lbw howlers. There must have been some doubt in Doctrove's mind before he dispatched Laxman as to whether the ball had pitched outside leg (it had, just). But Shastri's decision to give out Scott Styris next ball to Zaheer was truly awful, the ball landing several inches outside leg. To lose to Rajasthan when Shane Warne butchered Andrew Symonds was hard enough; but this was sickening.

"It's disappointing to lose these close games," said Laxman, before exaggerating by one the number of truly close games his side has actually been involved in. "We have lost three close ones and if they had been three wins, it would be a different story altogether. Rohit's wicket was the key, but from the 16th over, we lost too many wickets. We're just not able to finish things off at the moment."

The Royal Challengers can consider themselves fortunate to have come up against a side that currently lacks the killer instinct, because - as Dravid himself admitted - a total of 156 for 8 was at least 15 runs below par. This is hardly surprising, since the top order, now without the classy hitting of Ross Taylor, who has gone to play for New Zealand in England, still looks desperately unsettled.

The constant tinkering with the batting line-up suggests all is not well. Five different batsmen - Jaffer, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Bharat Chipli, Praveen and Dravid himself - have formed four different opening partnerships, and together they have totalled 74 runs in 12.3 overs. That's one run per ball - unacceptable when the fielding restrictions are in place for the first six overs of every innings - and a wicket on average at the end of the second over. This is not the stuff of which firm foundations are made.

There's more. No Bangalore player has yet made more than Jacques Kallis' 54, against Delhi Daredevils. That's the lowest high score of any of the eight franchises. Of the 37 scores in the competition of 50 or more, only three have come from the bat of a Royal Challenger. They are manifestly not pulling their weight, despite Dravid's assertion last night that Jaffer has "always been a strokemaker" and has suffered from being pigeon-holed too early.

It's true that Dravid himself batted well at No. 6 for a 19-ball 26 - the role of an innings finisher surely suits him best - but you sense Bangalore will need to assign specific tasks to each of their top six for their remaining eight group games if they are to reach the last four.