Hyderabad, April 15 (IANS) An inspired unbeaten half-century from Bharat Chipli and fiery bowling by Dale Steyn saw Deccan Chargers break their home jinx with a 33-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppals here Thursday.
The maiden win at home came for Deccan Chargers, who won the 2009 tournament in South Africa in between eight losses here in the 2008 and 2010 editions.
Chipli's 35-ball 61 and a solid 50-run stand for the second wicket between skipper Kumar Sangakkara (36) and opener Sunny Sohal (38) took Deccan Chargers to a challenging 175 for five from 20 overs.
Virat Kohli raised hopes of a fightback with a gutsy 71 but barring him, Cheteshwar Pujara (25) and opener Mayank Aggarwal (17), none of the batsmen could get to double figures and the Royal Challengers innings ended at 142 for nine from 20 overs.
The Deccan Chargers bowlers were also clinical in their approach, and pace spearhead Steyn picked up three for 24 to emerge as the Man of the Match. Manpreet Gony also picked up three for 31. Ishant Sharma, looking to make a return to the national squad, bowled well in his four overs on the trot and removed the dangerous Tillekaratne Dilshan.
Royal Challengers captain Daniel Vettori's decision to bowl first backfired, as despite getting Shikhar Dhawan (11) out in the third over, the bowlers could not make much of an impact and Sangakkara and Sohal set the stage for the onslaught with their 50-run stand, which was the highest for any wicket for the 2009 champions in the tournament so far.
Chipli didn't take much time to settle down and he smacked Dilshan for a huge six in the 12th over to makes his intentions clear. He hammered off-spinner Ryan Ninan for two consecutive sixes for a 16-run over and followed it up with three consecutive fours off Zaheer Khan in the next over that bleeded 15 runs.
Chipli hit Zaheer for 22 runs in the nine balls that he faced off the left-arm pacer, who played a stellar role in India's World Cup triumph earlier this month.
Chipli, who hit five fours and three sixes, added 55 valuable runs for the fourth wicket with Jean-Paul Duminy, who came up with a cameo 15-ball 22.
The Royal Challengers bowling attack went wayward in the death overs as the Chargers plundered 63 runs from the last five overs.
The chase was always going to be tough for the Royal Challengers and they never got a good partnership. The only highlight of their batting was Kohli's 51-ball 71 that included five fours and three sixes.
With 58 runs needed from 18 balls, Kohli charged Gony for a six and a four off consecutive deliveries, but the Punjab fast bowler came back strongly and knocked off his stumps with the next ball.