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After his international retirement from the shorter version, the only time of the year when Rahul Dravid gets to wear coloured clothing while on the cricket field is during the IPL. That's the time when one of the world's finest No. 3 in Tests has to reinvent himself. On Saturday, Dravid played a knock that had shots he wouldn't have even contemplated while sporting flannels.
His 33-ball 52, followed by Robin Uthappa's 22-ball 52, helped Royal Challengers Bangalore record a seven-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders. In a crucial game between two team on the same points, Bangalore chased down Kolkata's total of 160 to enhance their chances of reaching the last four.
It proved to be a perfect day for Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble as both his batsmen and bowlers combined forces to secure an easy but entertaining win in front of the highly charged-up home fans. After pacers Dale Steyn (1/27) and Vinay Kumar (3/23) had restricted Kolkata to a modest score, it was up to the batsmen to compliment the efforts of the bowlers.
With Dravid at the helm, Bangalore paced their chase methodically. The former India captain was restrained when opener S Sriram (27) was at the crease, but after the latter's departure, he let lose. A couple of sixes in the 13th over of the game bowled by Ajit Agarkar proved Dravid's adaptability. The third ball of the over went for a straight six over long-on. The next ball from Agarkar was on yorker length, pitched way outside the off stump. A similar ball in the longer version would have seen Dravid leaving it alone, but not so in T20. He went down on his knees and flat-batted it over the cover field for another six.
Dravid's half-century ensured that Bangalore were on the home stretch. But just before they reached the finish line, Uthappa played to the galleries. He hit five sixes one of them courtesy a fierce reverse sweep and that meant the red flags in the stands never stopped waving in the final stages of the game.
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