…RCB  snatch dramatic win over South Austrlia Redbacks
SOMERSET reached the semi-finals of the Champions League with a 12-run victory over the Warriors in Bangalore, while Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) snatched a dramatic win over the South Australian Redbacks with a six off the final ball.
RCB’s win means Somerset top Group B and will face Mumbai Indians in Saturday’s second semi-final. RCB take on New South Wales in tomorrow’s first semi-final in Bangalore
The English county made 146-4 after electing to bat with opener Craig Kieswetter making an unbeaten 56 off 52 balls to provide the foundation of the innings.
Roelof van der Merwe (32 off 16), James Hildreth (21 off 20) and Jos Buttler (30 off 23) all made valuable contributions to leave the South African franchise requiring 7.3 runs per over.
Colin Ingram made 31 and they looked well placed at 81-2 after 12 overs to reach the last four.
But opener JJ Smuts then departed for 38 and a flurry of wickets followed.
Needing 23 runs from the last two overs, Craig Thyssen was caught on the boundary by Murali Kartik from the bowling of man-of-the-match Alfonso Thomas before Wayne Parnell went in the same way three balls later.
Athenkosi Dyili was then bowled by Roelof van der Merwe in the penultimate over as the Warriors limped to a total of 134 for eight.
Somerset’s Van der Merwe said: “We’re through to the last four so we’re very happy about what we did here tonight,” he told British Eurosport.
“They asked me to bowl the last over and I was happy to do it. It’s something I thrive on and we’re through to the semis.”
Arun Karthik scored a six from the final ball of the game to put Royal Challengers Bangalore through to the semi-finals of the Champions League Twenty20 with a dramatic two-wicket win over South Australian Redbacks.
Bangalore looked to have let their run chase slip when Shaun Tait ripped through their innings to record his Twenty20 best figures of five wickets for 32 runs after Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virat Kohli appeared to have the Redbacks target of 215 firmly in their sights.
However, despite losing five wickets for 12 runs, Karthik remained calm to score a huge six from only his second delivery of the game to give Bangalore a last-gasp victory.
Earlier, Daniel Harris fired 108 not out from 61 balls as the Redbacks raced to 214 for two – their highest ever score in Twenty20 cricket
Callum Ferguson helped Harris pile up the runs as he scored 70 from 43 balls before being caught off the bowling of Raajoo Bhatkal.
His dismissal brought Daniel Christian to the crease, who scored a rapid 27 from only nine deliveries as he and Harris stole 24 runs from Sreenath Aravind’s final over.
Chris Gayle and Dilshan started Bangalore’s innings in positive fashion, but drama struck when Gayle was dismissed in the sixth over when Michael Klinger and Tom Cooper collided when trying to take the catch.
Klinger held on to the ball but had to be helped from the field after injuring his leg.
Bangalore needed 18 runs from their last two overs which looked to be out of reach until Karthik scored the winning runs.with the final strike of the match.