Finally, Rahul Dravid has smiled. And the Bangalore team is rejoicing - this victory cannot be explained with mere statistics of two points or the subtle rise in the standings. In a tournament that has scripted many last-over finishes with varying climaxes, and on a day that liberally produced thrillers, this match could be referred to the classics section of the IPL library. Because this victory was sewed by people banished from this three-hour entertainment circus for being too classical in their approach; Wednesday night’s victory for Bangalore Royal Challengers not only earned the team some lost pride, it also spoilt temporarily the semi-final chances for Chennai Super Kings. Moreover, it ensured that the brash game of Twenty20 still has some space for the few good men of international cricket. Rahul Dravid’s 47 off 39 balls with five boundaries primarily gave some liquidity to the scoreboard that wore the constipated look in the powerplays and most part of the first innings. And the second half belonged to Man of the Match Anil Kumble with his 4-0-14-3 that brought their team back after a damaging 60-run opening partnership between Stephen Fleming and Parthiv Patel which threatened an early and tame end to the match. If Kumble ensured it went the distance and made the route wobbly, Jacques Kallis’ tight spell of 4-0-15-0 and a superb catch ensured that the Super Kings lost breath to breast the finish line in time. In the end, Super Kings fell short by 14 runs — a defeat snatched from the jaws of victory; an effort garnished with utter over-confidence and arrogance in under-estimating their opponents which forced the hosts to pay heavily despite the couple of bloopers in the field by Challengers. Dhoni walked in at number three with hopes of a quick finish, but exited quickly, and the remaining batting line-up just waved their bats trying to replicate the heroics and step up the entertainment quotient without looking towards the mathematics of the required rate. Challengers dived around in the field to back their bowlers to the hilt as a late effort, but that saved the day for them. Their batting though has remained an embarrassment.There’s an open secret to Bangalore Royal Challengers’s consistent disaster with the bat; well quite literally so. And except the utter lack of matches this IPL has provided to the Challengers, it would have produced more effective permutations and combinations amongst Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Virat Kohli, J Arun Kumar, Bharat Chipli, Praveen Kumar and Sreevats Goswami for that opening slot. Nevertheless, Goswami walked in with Kallis on Wednesday night to become the ninth different opening pair in 12 matches. Of course, the early fall of wickets remains a constant throughout.A look at the other top teams in the table — Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings suggests certain stability in the tenure of openers. Certainly not for Challengers tonight who won the toss and batted first, and against Chennai that has lost matches only to individuals’ superlative batting (remember Sehwag, Jayasuriya and Gilchrist) and Tanvir’s outstanding six-wicket spell, the score of 126/8 was an easy chase always — despite a cameo from Praveen Kumar who helped the tail wag furiously to fetch 50 runs in the last five overs to bring some momentum into the innings. Tonight, though, remained an exception, and they lost to a team effort. Rahul Dravid’s boys — men rather — have eventually prepared a recipe mixing reputation, grace, flair and timing in the Twenty20 kitchen that tastes sweet as success.Bangalore J Kallis c Fleming b Gony 5, S Goswami c Patel b Gony 10, V Kohli c Morkel b Muralitharan 10, R Dravid c Dhoni b Morkel 47, Misbah-ul-Haq c Patel b Balaji 4, M Boucher lbw b Morkel 17, B Akhil not out 6, P Kumar b Morkel 21, V Kumar b Morkel 0, A Kumble not out 2; Extras (lb 3, w 1) 4Total (8 wickets; 20 overs) 126FoW: 1-7, 2-22, 3-33, 4-41, 5-76, 6-97, 7-124, 8-124; Bowling: M Ntini 4-0-27-0, M Gony 4-1-11-2, M Muralitharan 4-0-19-1, L Balaji 4-0-34-1, A Morkel 4-0-32-4Chennai P Patel c & b Kumble 24, S Fleming c Akhil b Kumble 45, M Dhoni c Kumble b Kumar 4, S Raina not out 21, S Badrinath lbw b Kumble 1, A Morkel c Kumar b Steyn 1, S Vidyut c Kallis b Steyn 0, M Gony c Steyn b Kumar 4, L Balaji run out (Dravid/Goswami) 0, M Ntini not out 0; Extras (lb 2, w 8, nb 2) 12Total (8 wickets; 20 overs) 112 FoW: 1-60, 2-65, 3-85, 4-87, 5-93, 6-93, 7-108, 8-110; Bowling: D Steyn 4-0-28-2, P Kumar 4-0-26-1, A Kumble 4-0-14-3, J Kallis 4-0-15-0, V Kumar 3-0-23-1, B Akhil 1-0-4-0
