Bangalore thump listless Guyana

Royal Challengers Bangalore sauntered to victory against Guyana in the most one-sided game of the tournament so far. It was Guyana's first game on the big stage, and they looked way out of their depth, as the highly rated Bangalore sounded an early warning to the rest of the field.

On a track where 345 runs had been scored in the evening's earlier game, Guyana poked and prodded their way to 103, a total Bangalore overhauled with the small matter of 46 deliveries remaining, giving the net run-rate an early boost. No statistic highlighted Guyana's ineffectual batting as much as the solitary boundary in a ten-over spell after the Powerplays.

None of their batsman, barring Christopher Barnwell to an extent, seemed at ease on a pitch which had some extra bounce to interest the South Africans in Bangalore's attack, and some early movement for Praveen Kumar. Opener Travis Dowlin was perhaps the most unsettled: in a 17-ball stay he was beaten, struck on the pads, squared up while defending, got inside edges, and mishit a pull towards the bowler before finally gloving a short ball to short fine leg.

That brought in Guyana's captain and most experienced batsman, Ramnaresh Sarwan. He struck an imperious six off the back foot over long-off but Kallis knocked back his off stump the following ball.

One of the concerns for Bangalore coming into the match was Rahul Dravid's fitness, barely recovering from a stomach bug. He dropped Sewnarine Chattergoon in the fourth over, a simple skier at square leg, in what was perhaps the only blemish in Bangalore's spotless performance. Chattergoon didn't make use of that opportunity though, run-out two overs later after being called for a non-existent single, caught well short by a Cameron White direct-hit from cover.

It was all too easy for Bangalore from then on. Even left-arm spinner Nayan Doshi and medium-pacer B Akhil, who together sent down the fifth bowler's quota, weren't attacked. At the end of the 12th over, with Guyana gasping at 60 for 4, the normally grim-faced Anil Kumble was relaxed enough to laugh and exchange a joke with the umpire.

Even the much-awaited entrance of Jonathan Foo didn't change Guyana's fortunes. He could only take a single off five balls before edging a rising delivery from Kallis, who removed Derwin Christian two balls later to finish with career-best figures. Towards the end of the innings, the only interest was in whether Guyana could reach triple digits, which they did thanks to a Barnwell swipe in the final over.

Guyana's bowlers had little chance of reining in the heavy-hitters of Bangalore, their only sliver of hope of pulling off an upset lay in getting early breakthroughs. Kallis and Dravid made sure there were no nasty surprises for the Bangalore fans in Centurion, who sang local chants though the game. Kallis put away two short and wide gifts in the first over for fours and followed it up with a sweetly-timed flick for six in the second. When Dravid helped himself to a couple of eye-catching fours in the fourth over, Bangalore had galloped to 31 for 0 and Guyana's day was turning into a total embarrassment.