The second match of the DLF IPL-II had the defending champions Rajasthan Royals taking on the Royal Challengers Bangalore at Cape Town. Kevin Pietersen of the Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and decided to bat first, leaving out Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher in the process. Shane Warne had Dmitri Mascarhenhas, Graeme Smith and Tyron Henderson apart from himself as the four foreign players.
The horrors of the previous year’s performance returned in the very first over of the match for the Royal Challengers as they lost two wickets with nothing on the board. The star performer of India’s tour to New Zealand, Jesse Ryder was the first to go, inside-edging one from Mascarhenhas to the wicket-keeper, while Ross Taylor had his leg-stump cart-wheeling off the very next delivery to leave them reeling.
Pietersen then joined Robin Uthappa – replaced with Mumbai Indians’ Zaheer Khan – and staved off the hat-trick ball. The duo started to rebuild but the slow scoring build enough pressure on the RCs to have Uthappa play another rash stroke to the dibbly-dobbly medium pace of Mascarhenhas. RCB 17/3 in five overs.
The classy looking Rahul Dravid entered the arena after having his captaincy stripped and played some classy strokes to try and bail the RCs out of trouble. KP slowly got into his groove as well and hit a couple of good boundaries, but Warne kept ringing in the changes and that did not allow either of the batsmen to settle down. In the end, this took a toll on Pietersen and he scooped a rather simple catch to Neeraj Patel at the mid-wicket off $650,000 worth Tyron Henderson. The RCBs ended their first ten overs on 57/4, with a lot to be discussed over the tactical break.
The break – and Pietersen’s wicket – went a long way in breaking the concentration of the Bangalore batsmen, as the scoring rate dropped once the spinners came on. Three runs came off Henderson’s 11th over, while Warne’s first also cost three but more importantly it resulted in the scalp of Virat Kohli. Dravid soldiered on to another fifty, but Warne wasn’t done yet as he picked another one; bowling a slow, looping leg-spinner that pitched outside the leg, and then nicely curved in to take the stumps of B. Akhil. 
Dravid went on to his fifty (66 off 48), but the RCs could manage only 133/8 in their stipulated 20 overs. Mascarhenhas had three wickets to his name, where as Munaf Patel and Warne got two each.
A target of 134 in a twenty-over match is usually said to be one of the easier propositions, but the RCs hadn’t given up. The very first over from Praveen Kumar saw a repeat of the RCB’s inning with the wicket of Swapnil Asnodkar who tried to go over the top even without getting the proverbial eye in. Kumar returned in his second over to get rid of the danger-man Graeme Smith as well to leave the Royals struggling at 3/2. The asking rate kept climbing as the white ball exhibited some exaggerated movement off the seam, the exerted pressure getting better of Neeraj Patel off part-timer Jesse Ryder. The Royals continued losing their wickets, Henderson falling to Ryder and Mascarhenhas runout after facing only a single delivery.
After the mandatory 7.5 minute break, the Royals decided to take on the bowling but the counter-attack lasted only one over in which a six and a four was leaked. Anil Kumble’s second over took care of the dangerous Yusuf Pathan to leave Warne’s team with 87 runs to get in 53 balls. The very next delivery accounted for Ravindra Jadeja leaving the defending champs tottering and Kumble with a chance to take a hat-trick; the second such opportunity of the match.
Any recovery from that position would have been marginal, but there was no fightback forthcoming from the batting side as they plummeted to 58 all out! Kumble’s five-wicket haul ensured that Pietersen had a winning debut as a captain, and that the Royals finished with the lowest total of the IPL ever. Kumble ended with amazing figures of 5/5, something reminiscent of his best ODI analysis of 6/12 against West Indies.