Bang on Target

Chris Gayles 81 off 48 helps Bangalore overhaul Punes 183

Twenty one runs,six balls. Once again in this edition of the IPL,the Royal Challengers Bangalore were under the pump. With a drizzle spicing up the scene at the Chinnaswamy Stadium,Pune Warriors Indias Ashish Nehra wobbled in to bowl the last over of an enthralling game. All the Indian fast bowler had to do was to make sure that AB de Villiers and Saurabh Tiwary,the two RCB batsmen in the middle,didnt damage the boundary hoardings on more than a couple of occasions.

But for a bowler who awoke the monster in Bangalores most dangerous batsman for the first time in this tournament in his second over at the beginning of the chase,it was always going to be a difficult task. And that monster,going by the name of Chris Gayle,was the reason that Bangalore still had a semblance of a chance at the death in the first place.

Until Tuesday,Gayle had a sum total of 78 runs in three innings. Then,in a near improbable chase of 183 for a side that had forgotten how to win,Nehra bowled him a juicy width ball in the fourth over of the innings,and the Jamaican planted it inches away from the sweeper fence toblerone. Gayle liked what he did,for he repeated the demonic hacks two more times in as many balls,and each time,he was rewarded with six runs.

Nehra was taken out of the attack immediately by Pune skipper Sourav Ganguly. And following some fantastic bowling of the restrictive variety by Angelo Mathews,Marlon Samuels and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the next eight overs RCB moved from 35/1 in four to 76/3 in 12,the crowd would have been pardoned for believing that their side were out of it. At that point,RCB needed a whopping 107 runs from 48 balls. Then Rahul Sharma was brought into the attack,and non-striker Gayle looked to the heavens,perhaps praying to get on strike.

Near perfect: 5 in 5

After Tiwary returned the strike in one ball,Gayle smashed the hide with a 105 metre six over long-off. And then he hit another,over midwicket. And another,straight back over a stunned Sharmas head.

And another,and another. Reducing the target by 30 runs in just five balls,Bangalore were right back in the game. But to seriously consider a win,Gayle,now batting on 71,was expected to shoulder the entire burden. A burden that Nehra would soon ensure was distributed to RCBs middle-order heavyweights.

Reintroduced in the 16th,Nehra decided to test Gayles skills against the short ball yet again,only to have the delivery slapped for the batsmans eighth six of the innings. Then,for the first time,Nehra bowled a yorker. And what a yorker it was. Loaded with inswing,the ball flicked Gayles leg stump. It was possibly that wicket that inspired Ganguly to go with his trusted lieutenant in the final over.

Unorthodox de Villiers

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Watching de Villiers pre-meditate a scoop,Nehra followed the batsman with a vicious full-length delivery. But yet,somehow,de Villiers elbowed it past the keeper for four. Then,with the help of just his weaker hand,de Villiers cleared long-off for a one-handed six to make it 10 runs from three balls. It was soon four from two,as de Villiers played the stroke off the day a deft scoop over fine-leg for the 13th six of the innings.

Nehra managed to pull things back with just one run from the next ball,and keeping de Villiers away from the strike for the last ball of the day. But on a day when he brought Gayle back to form and gifted de Villiers his touch,making a hero out of a unsung middle-order batsman wasnt too far.

Tiwary clobbered the length ball into the sightscreen,and RCB won only their second match in the campaign by six wickets.