Chris Gayle was at his devastating best, hitting nine sixes as he helped Royal Challengers Bangalore script a comprehensive 8-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Thursday
Chris Gayle struck a brutal unbeaten 85 to power Royal Challengers Bangalore to a crushing eight-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Thursday.
Galye's knock came off just 50 balls and included just four boundaries and nine sixes.u00a0
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Chasing a challenging target of 155, Gayle took the likes of L Balaji and Ryan McLaren to the cleaners, winning the game singlehandedly with 15 balls to spare.
Chris Gayle was at his devastating best
KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir used all his resources, but to no avail, as Gayle took RCB to the victory target.
Earlier, Gambhir led from the front with a 46-ball 59 as Kolkata Knight Riders scored 154 for eight against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Gambhir shared 51 runs with Yusuf Pathan (27 off 17 balls) to take KKR total past 150 as RCB bowlers struck regularly after the home side chose to field.
Jacques Kallis (16) and Manoj Tiwary (23) batted well but could not convert the starts into big knocks and it was left to Gambhir to rescue the innings.
Gautam Gambhir's bag of tricks failed to stop Gayle
Gambhir, though was also lucky after surviving a run-out after a mix-up with Kallis when he was on one. He cut the ball to the point and set off for a single but his partner was not interested in the run. Gambhir was lucky, a better throw from RCB captain Virat Kohli would have seen his back early on.
He then cracked two magnificent boundaries off R P Singh.
The KKR captain looked like he had a plan to unsettle legendary off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. He hit two consecutive boundaries in the very first over of Muralitharan. First, he came down the wicket and drove through covers and then went down on his knees to loft the ball to long-on fence.
Gambhir survived yet another run-out after the third umpire ruled that the wicketkeeper had not collected the ball cleanly before breaking the stumps.
He then reached his 17th IPL fifty by gently nudging Jaydev Unadkat to third man. After crashing Unadkat for a six, Gambhir top-edged Vinay Kumar for the bowler to take a return catch.
Having failed in the last two games, Pathan began with a bang smacking three consecutive boundaries of Vinay Kumar. He then lined up Jaydev Unadkat for a six over deep mid-wicket fence, but he could not last long as he was caught by Vinay Kumar off Henriques. Eoin Morgan followed suit as he was out on his fifth ball for two off R P Singh.
Gautam Gambhir played a captain's innings, but would have hoped his team-mates supported his effort.
Bangalore went into the game without spinner Murali Kartik, who made way for young Karnataka batsman Lokesh Rahul. Kolkata left out Brett Lee and Laxmi Ratan Shukla and replaced them with Ryan McLaren and Pradeep Sangwan, both of whom proved expensive.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders: 154 for 8 in 20 overs (Gautam Gambhir 59, Yusuf Pathan 27; R P Singh 3/27, Moises Henriques 2/24).u00a0
Teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Moises Henriques, KB Arun Karthik, Lokesh Rahul, R Vinay Kumar, RP Singh, Jaydev Unadkat and Muttiah Muralitharan
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (C), Manvinder Bisla , Jaques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Eoin Morgan, Ryan McLaren, Rajat Bhatia, Pradeep Sangwan, Sunil Narine and Laxmipati Balaji.u00a0
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