Bangalore threw an opening night party for the Royal Challengers, one that was gate-crashed in some style by Jean-Paul Duminy, who smashed an unbeaten 52-ball 99 to lead Cape Cobras to an unlikely victory over the home side at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday night. He was at the non-strikers end when Rory Kleinveldt smashed Vinay Kumar for a boundary to seal the result with two balls to spare.

The visitors from South Africa had been set a daunting target of 181, built on contributions from Robin Uthappa and Ross Taylor. Their chase started badly, when they lost their experienced opener Herschelle Gibbs early, as Praveen Kumar’s outswinger kissed the outside edge of his bat on the way to keeper Mark Boucher. Praveen also got rid of Cobras’ skipper Andrew Puttick, who got a leading edge to Virat Kohli at point.

But Duminy controlled the chase with great poise and some huge hitting in his knock which included eight fours and five sixes.

Earlier, Anil Kumble won the toss and opted to bat first and seemed to have lost the plot a bit as they reached 119 after 16 overs. Robin Uthappa found some form in a well-paced half-century and Rahul Dravid got off to a brisk start as well, after Jacques Kallis had departed early in the piece. Virat Kohli too played a handy cameo but Bangalore still seemed a few big hits away from a competitive total.

That they got from New Zealand’s Ross Taylor — the real star of the first innings — who stepped it up more than a couple of gears as 61 runs came off the last four overs. He added 65 runs with youngster Manish Pandey (10 not out), who rotated the strike well, and Taylor himself finished with a swashbuckling 53 off 24 balls.

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