Cricket: Taylor last Kiwi standing in IPL

Ross Taylor’s Bangalore Royal Challengers face the Mumbai Indians in the first IPL semifinal on Thursday (NZT). Photo / Mark Mitchell

Ross Taylor is the solitary New Zealand cricketer left in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after his three compatriots' teams missed out on the playoffs on net run rate.

Taylor's Bangalore Royal Challengers will face Sachin Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians in the first semifinal in Mumbai early on Thursday (NZT) after the top-four were decided overnight.

The Kolkata Knight Riders, including Brendon McCullum and Shane Bond, beat Mumbai in the final round robin match early today but it wasn't enough to sneak them into the top-four.

Bangalore, Kolkata, the Stephen Fleming-coached Chennai Super Kings and Daniel Vettori's Delhi Daredevils were all locked on 14 competition points, with Bangalore and Chennai both claiming the final two semifinal spots on net run rate.

McCullum and Bond made strong finishes to the tournament as their team won by nine wickets against Mumbai who were already certain top qualifiers.

McCullum cracked 57 not out off 56 balls as they chased down Mumbai's 133 for eight, after Bond took two for 24 off four overs.

It was McCullum's highest score in five tournament innings as he finished with 114 runs at 28.50 and a strike rate of 103.63.

Bond had a tidy tournament in his eight matches, bowling 31 overs and taking nine wickets at 24.88 and economy rate of 7.22 as he prepares to be New Zealand's spearhead at the Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean next month..

Taylor will want to improve on his batting stats in the playoffs, having scored just 57 runs from six innings at an average of 14.25 and a strike rate of 126.66,

Vettori played just three matches, taking two wickets at 48.50 and economy rate of 8.31. With the bat he scored 33 runs for just one dismissal at a strike rate of 122.22.

Tendulkar scored the most runs in the round robin phase, 561 at 51.00 and a strike rate of 136.16. England's Kevin Pietersen (Bangalore) topped the batting averages with 188 runs from five innings at 62.66 and a strike rate of 154.09.

With the ball, Deccan's Pragyan Ojha topped the wicket tally with 20 at an average of 19.00 and economy rate of 7.45.

Chennai will play the Deccan Chargers in the second semifinal early on Sunday (NZT). Both semifinals were shifted to Mumbai due to safety concerns after the minor bomb blast outside the Bangalore stadium on Saturday.

The two finalists and the winner of the playoff for third will qualify for the lucrative Champions League in India later in the year.

It means Taylor can potentially qualify for four teams in the Champions League if Bangalore finish in the top three. He has already played for New Zealand Twenty20 champions Central Districts and Australian domestic winners Victoria, and has just signed for Durham in the English league.

- NZPA