BANGALORE, May 3: Bangalore Royal Challengers scored a hard-fought three-run victory over Deccan Chargers in a see-saw battle in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday.

Defending a total of 156-8, Bangalore got a spirited effort from their pace bowlers and were also helped by a couple of dubious decisions as they saw off Deccan Chargers’ challenge in what was billed as the clash of the weaklings, both teams having won just one out of five previous matches.

The Chargers seemed to be cruising along and were 127-2 in the 17th over but Rohit Sharma’s dismissal at that stage change the course of the match.

Sharma, who earned the ‘orange cap’ for most runs in the tournament during his superlative 57 off 42 balls with three sixes and five fours, was caught at long-on with 30 needed off 20 balls.

Sharma once again finished on the losing side like in the match against Kings XI Punjab, when he had slammed 76, his 96-run stand for the third wicket with skipper Vangipurappu Laxman (52 off 44) not proving good enough to seal the match.

Though the partnership was a solid one, the inability to supplement huge hits with singles and twos meant they could not provide the lower order batsmen with a buffer to finish the match with ease.

For the Royal Challengers, pace bowlers Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan shared five scalps, but were lucky to get the wickets of Laxman and Scott Styris, respectively. The two were adjudged lbw by umpires Billy Doctrove and Suresh Shastri, respectively, on deliveries that pitched outside the leg-stump.

With Shahid Afridi also failing to blast off, Deccan Chargers were left to get 20 off the last over. But there were plenty of thrills still to follow in the over bowled by Anil Kumble. Sanjay Bangar smashed two sixes to keep the match alive till the last delivery. With six to get from two balls, Bangar could manage only a single and Arjun Yadav could do just the same off the last ball when a four was required for victory.

The fireworks after the match made up for the light failure earlier in the day after the home side had failed to step on the throttle despite a fine start.

Captain Rahul Dravid’s unbeaten 26 off 19 down the order lent some respectability to the total after the home side lost the plot in mid innings.

Pace-man R.P. Singh was the pick of the Deccan Chargers’ bowlers with 3-41 while spinner Pragyan Ojha bagged 2-28 to frustrate the batsmen.

Earlier, Royal Challengers started well as Wasim Jaffer used his feet well to produce some well-timed shots on either side of the wicket during his 37-ball 44. Jaffer once took three fours off R.P. Singh. He fell to slow left-armer Ojha, who also dismissed Jacques Kallis with a fine delivery that went through between bat and pad.

India under-19 skipper Virat Kohli was looking good, hitting two sixes and a four during his 38 before falling to R.P. Singh in an effort to boost the run-rate.

Bangalore were 85-1 in the 11th over when Jaffer and Kohli were together in the middle, but lost wickets at regular intervals and failed to put up a challenging total.

The home team brought in Pakistani batsman Misbah-ul-Haq in place of Kiwi Ross Taylor, who has left for national duty, and Kumble to add teeth to the bowling attack.

Hyderabad brought in Styris, P. Vijay Kumar and Yadav. Nuwan Zoysa, D. Kalyakrishnan and Venugopal Rao made way for them.

Summarised scores:

BANGALORE ROYAL CHALLENGERS 156-8 in 20 overs (Wasim Jaffer 44, Virat Kohli 38, Rahul Dravid 26; R.P. Singh 3-41, Pragyan Ojha 2-28); DECCAN CHARGERS 153-6 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 57, Vangipurappu Laxman 52; Praveen Kumar 3-23, Zaheer Khan 2-24).—Agencies