Chris Gayle’s 117 powers RCB to 138-run win over KXIP

Gayle was not picked for the last game against the Chennai Super Kings. Nic Maddinson was preferred, instead. In one of the earlier matches also, the big man was left out. Gayle is not used to such snubs. He was determined to prove a point. Unfortunately, Kings XI Punjab were at the receiving end of his anger. George Bailey invited the trouble by choosing to bowl first.

Gayle targeted Punjab’s No. 1 strike bowler. Twenty runs off Mitchell Johnson’s first over — two fours and two sixes — and the stadium was rocking. It was one of the most expensive overs Johnson had bowled in T20 cricket.

Sandeep Sharma came and was dispatched over mid-wicket. Next ball, Bailey dropped Gayle. It was a tough chance, for the Punjab captain had to run back from mid-off. He misjudged the skier and the ball bounced crossed the rope for a boundary. It proved to be a very costly miss.

The next couple of overs were relatively quiet. Gayle broke the monotony with a six off Johnson in the final power-play over. Towards the back end of his innings, big hits became monotonous. Gayle survived again when Manan Vohra at the square leg boundary put him down off Axar Patel. He was on 53. The Bangalore opener celebrated it with a flat six over the straight boundary. Glenn Maxwell was carted with ridiculous ease. Axar was clobbered. Leggie Karanveer Singh was treated with contempt. The hundred came in 46 balls with a four off Johnson. It was his 14th in this format and 5th in the IPL — three better than the next best. Gayle started the ‘Ron dance’.

“I am a big fan of Cristiano Ronaldo. I was watching the Real Madrid game last night. I saw his celebrations and thought about doing it today,” he later explained.

Gayle finally departed for 117 off 57 balls, hitting seven fours and 12 sixes. Two of those sixes rebounded off the Chinnaswamy roof. He also became the fourth player after Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir to complete 3,000 IPL runs. He did it in 75 innings; fastest of them all.

Tall amid ruins

Punjab pacer Anureet Singh stood tall amid the batting carnage. The figures of 4-0-25-0 were outstanding in the context of the game. Even Gayle could take only four runs off the eight balls he played against Anureet. Unfortunately Anureet’s colleagues didn’t complement him.

All but out

With AB de Villiers (47* off 24) continuing from where Gayle left off, Bangalore put up 226 runs on the board. It was too intimidating a target. And Punjab surrendered against Mitchell Starc’s pace and Sreenath Aravind’s swing. The two fast bowlers shared eight wickets (four each) between them to steamroll the visitors.

Starc started the slide with Vohra’s wicket in the first over. Harshal Patel castled Murali Vijay with a beauty. Maxwell played an atrocious shot against Aravind to lose his off stump. Wriddhiman Saha lofted Aravind to Kohli at mid-on. Then, the left-arm seamer, playing his first game of this IPL, sneaked through David Miller’s defence with a slower ball. He removed Bailey in the first ball of his next over with an inswinger. Johnson averted the hat-trick but didn’t last long.

Kohli went for the kill, bringing back Starc at the other end. Eventually, Punjab were all out for 88 in 13.4 overs to lose by 138 runs. It’s all but curtains for them, while RCB moved to third in the table.