Deccan v Bangalore, IPL 2012, Hyderabad

JP Duminy lifts struggling Deccan to 132

20 overs Deccan Chargers 132 for 7 (Duminy 74) v Royal Challengers Bangalore

With a place in the playoffs at stake, Royal Challengers Bangalore stifled Deccan Chargers for the majority of the innings to keep them to a modest 132. A two-paced pitch produced fairly attritional cricket by Twenty20 standards, as Chargers struggled to maintain a rate of six an over or above. JP Duminy did his best to compensate for the failures of his other overseas colleagues with a late surge, pounding five sixes in an aggressive half-century.

Chargers were pegged back in the first over when their best batsman of the season, Shikhar Dhawan, was beaten in defence off Zaheer Khan in the first over. The ball kissed the top of the off bail but oddly, the umpire Simon Taufel and Dhawan failed to spot the dismissal. The Royal Challengers fielders kept pointing to the fallen bail and Dhawan was on his way for 5.

Chargers struggled to find the timing, with the ball stopping on the batsman. Cameron White was flummoxed by a delivery by the left-arm seamer Prasanth Parameshwaran, which came on to him much slower than expected. White took his eyes off the ball and tamely pulled it to square leg to give Royal Challengers their third wicket.

Only two boundaries were scored in the Powerplay overs, which produced just 23 runs. By the end of the tenth over, the score was an underwhelming 47 for 3. Royal Challengers bowled straight and tight lines and with the ball not coming on to the bat, many heaves and punches found the fielders. By the end of the 14th over, the run-rate was still below five. Parthiv Patel, who shared a stand of 71 with Duminy in 7.4 overs, gave the innings some momentum with a couple of short-arm pulls off Harshal Patel which found the boundary.

Duminy, who began watchfully, fetched the first of his five sixes when he heaved R Vinay Kumar over long-on in the 16th over. He hit three more in a single over off Muttiah Muralitharan, which cost 20. He got on his knee and slogged two over the on side, and when Murali fired one flatter, Duminy got underneath the bounce and slammed it over the bowler's head.

Duminy failed to put away a full toss in the penultimate over, holing out to long-on. His knock was valuable in getting Chargers to a middling total on a slow pitch, but the script would have been better for the hosts if he had an equally aggressive partner at the other end.