PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) - Bangalore Royal Challengers escaped with a 12-run win over Deccan Chargers to secure a spot in the semifinals of the Indian Premier League on Thursday.

Deccan looked like easily catching Bangalore’s impressive 170-4 - which included an unbeaten 114 by Manish Pandey - until opener Herschelle Gibbs fell for 60 at 116-4 in the 15th over, and the run rate proved to be beyond his teammates as Deccan fell short at 158-6.

Bangalore jumped over Deccan to claim third in the league standings, setting up a semifinal against second-placed Chennai Super Kings on Saturday at Johannesburg.

For finishing fourth, edging Kings XI Punjab on net run rate, Deccan will play league leader Delhi Daredevils in the first semifinal on Friday at Pretoria.

The final is on Sunday.

Gibbs emerged as the pivot for Deccan with a 43-ball 60 including three boundaries and four sixes.

He and Adam Gilchrist launched Deccan with 68 until the seventh over when Gilchrist was caught by Roelof van der Merwe off Balachandra Akhil for 15. Van der Merwe also caught Gilchrist’s replacement Tirumalsetti Suman off Anil Kumble for 12 at 91-2 in the 11th over, with Deccan still on track.

But when Gibbs fell to Akhil with just under six overs left, and Andrew Symonds followed in the next over for 18, Deccan couldn’t keep up and lost for the third time in its last four matches.

Akhil and Kumble took two wickets each to finish off a victory which was set up by Pandey’s second century in this year’s league.

Pandey, 19, who was not even a regular for Bangalore when the tournament started, smashed 10 boundaries and four sixes in 73 balls.

Despite slowing down on reaching 50, he continued to score easily, delicately steering the ball between the gaps, especially off the medium pacers and the spinners.

He put on 55 runs for the second wicket with Van der Merwe, who hit 23 off 18 balls, and saved his best strokes for the end, getting most of his boundaries over long on and long off in an unbeaten stand with Virat Kohli, who was 19 not out.

Spinner Pragyan Ojha was Deccan’s best bowler with 2-32 in four overs.

SCOREBOARD

J. Kallis c Suman b R. P. Singh 5

M. Pandey not out 114

R. Merwe st Gilchrist b Symonds 23

R. Dravid c Gibbs b Ojha 6

R. Taylor c J. Singh b Ojha 1

V. Kohli not out 19

Extras: (1lb, 1w) 2

Overs: 20.

Did not bat: R. Uthappa, M.Boucher, P. Kumar, A. Kumble, B. Akhil.

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-62, 3-107, 4-134.

Bowling: Harris 4-0-25-0, R. P. Singh 4-0-47-1, Symonds 4-0-15-1, Jaskaran Singh 3-0-32-0, Ojha 4-0-32-2, Suman 1-0-18-0.

A. Gilchrist c Van der Merwe b Akhil 15

H. Gibbs c Pandey b Akhil 60

T. Suman c Van der Merwe b Kumble 12

A. Symonds b Van der Merwe 18

R. Sharma c Kohli b Kumble 12

V. Rao run out 8

A. Bilakhia not out 16

R. Harris not out 4

Extras: (4b, 3lb, 6w) 13

Overs: 20.

Did not bat: Jaskaran Singh, R. P.Singh, P. Ojha.

Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-91, 3-116, 4-119, 5-137, 6-138.

Bowling: Kumble 4-0-23-2, Kallis 1-0-8-0, P. Kumar 4-0-45-0, van der Merwe 4-0-32-1, Akhil 4-0-18-2, Kohli 3-0-25-0.

Result: Bangalore won by 12 runs.

Man of the match: Manish Pandey (Ban).