Vijay Mallya-owned IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) began their Champions League preparations in style, beating the champions from New Zealand - Central Stags - by 22 runs in a practice match at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria on Tuesday.
The Bangalore team were too hot to handle in a one-sided affair in which the Stags elected to bowl after winning the toss. An opening partnership of 71 between Manish Pandey (40) and Rahul Dravid (38) put aside any apprehensions about how Indian teams would fair on hard, bouncy tracks here.
Robin Uthappa's 53 not out must have banged the national selectors' door again, who must be looking over their shoulder for an opener as the team struggled in Sri Lanka in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir.
Uthappa's fireworks were intensified by Cameron White's who came in to propel RCB to a formidable 172/2 with his 36-run whirlwind knock.
For the Stags, only George Worker and Seth Rance kittied wickets. Batting too looked pretty lethargic, with the skipper Jamie How struggling to just five runs in a 26-ball inning. Only Peter Ingram could add some momentum to the chase with his 63 runs.
In the absence of any support from the other end, Ingram couldn't win it for Stags against a backbreaking spell of 4 wickets for 9 runs in three overs by RCB all-rounder Dillon du Preez. The local player used the home conditions to his advantage by running through the Stags' top and middle order.
Continuous stutters prevented Stags from presenting any challenge and in the end, they could muster only 150/5, giving RCB a comfortable 22-run victory.
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