Hyderabad, May 20: Dale Steyn produced a fiery pace bowling spell of three for just eight runs as Deccan Chargers knocked Royal Challengers Bangalore out of the Indian Premier League with a nine-run victory in a tense match here today.
Steyn claimed the wickets of dangerous Chris Gayle and his opening partner Tillakaratne Dilshan and Zaheer Khan as RCB failed to chase down the target of 133 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal.
The victory by the Chargers also meant that defending champions Chennai Super Kings go through the play-offs stage, along with table-toppers Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians.
RCB collected 17 points from 16 matches, the same as that of Chennai but the latter made it to the play-offs stage on better net run rate.
Delhi now play Kolkata in the first qualifier in Pune on May 22 while Chennai take on Mumbai in the eliminator in Bangalore on May 23.
The Chargers, who ended the tournament at eighth out of nine teams with nine pints from 16 matches, thus spoiled RCB's chances of a play-off berth just two days after knocking out Rajasthan Royals from the tournament.
Steyn was ably supported by Ashish Reddy (3/25), Amit Mishra (2/26) and Veer Pratap Singh (1/26) as RCB could score 123 for nine from their 20 overs.
For RCB, captain Virat Kohli top-scored with a 40-ball 42 while Saurabh Tiwary and Gayle contributed 30 and 27 respectively.
But RCB's run chase never got going as they lost wickets at the crucial stages. Gayle taking 24 runs from the second over bowled by Manpreet Gony was the only highlight of the RCB chase and all the batsmen other than Kohli, Gayle and Tiwary could not reach double digits.
