Pietersen powers Bangalore's royal win

Jaipur: Kevin Pietersen returned to sublime form to power the Royal Challengers Bangalore to a five-wicket victory against the Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Man Singh stadium on Wednesday. The convincing win almost guarantees a semi-final berth for Bangalore, who regained their second position in the points table.

Bangalore restricted the Rajasthan Royals to 130-6 and then Pietersen smashed 62 off just 29 balls to put Bangalore on course to an easy win.

After Jacques Kallis fell to Kamran Khan for no score, the stage was set for another miracle evening for Shane Warne's soldiers. But Pietersen ensured nothing magical happened as he launched into the Rajasthan batting with disdain.

Kamran was pummeled for three boundaries and one six and then Adam Vogues was taken for 17 runs in his only over.

Pietersen added 60 for the third wicket with Robin Uthappa (26 off 21) before the latter's attempt of a switch-hit, with its inventor on the other end, brought his downfall.

The England batsman's explosive innings ended with him exploding on young Virat Kohli after he was run out due to a mix up. Kohli refused to respond to Pietersen's call and both batsmen ended on the same end, leaving Pietersen furious. But it was too late for Rajasthan to make a comeback as the visitors got home with more than five overs to spare.

After Rajasthan elected to bat, early wickets rocked their innings with their top three batsmen back in the hut for 21 runs in the fourth over. And when an unusually sedate Shane Watson (22 off 25) perished, the home side were looking down the barrel.

Yusuf Pathan (11 off nine) smashed two back-to-back boundaries before Dale Steyn cleaned him up.

An unbroken 58-run stand between Adam Vogues (28 off 27) and Abhishek Raut (32 off 20) lifted them to a half-decent score on a sluggish surface but it was no match for Bangalore's strong batting line-up.