Stop him if you can!

Chris Gayles unbeaten 85,including nine sixes,makes short work of KKRs 154 as RCB win by eight wickets

Where do you bowl to Chris Gayle? Its a proposition that teams must certainly be deliberating over for hours before taking on the Royal Challengers Bangalore. A challenge that is sure to send a chill down even the greatest bowlers spine each time they stand at the top of their bowling mark and stare down the pitch to see the Jamaican.

On the face of it,in the IPL anyway,getting the better of Gayle might seem an indomitable quest. Such has been his incredible run with the bat,especially in RCB colours. It almost can seem at times that the bowlers best bet is to roll his arm over and just keep his fingers crossed that the mighty Jamaican decides to have some mercy on the ball.

But Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma had proved in Bangalores earlier encounter that Gayle too like every other batsman had a chink in his seemingly impregnable armour. By pitching the ball just short of length at high pace and seaming it away from the left-hander,the Sunrisers new-ball duo had shown that the Gayle could be halted,if not stopped. Sharma even managed to nick him out with a similar delivery,getting him caught on the crease and fishing at a delivery outside his off-stump for 13.

So as Kolkata Knight Riders arrived in Bangalore,they suddenly had a template to work on regarding their strategy to contend with the Gayle challenge,courtesy Steyn and Sharma. Unfortunately,they failed to abide by it to the hilt,and as a result were blown away by yet another Gayle assault,with RCB chasing down their target of 155 in less than 18 overs,their chief assailant remaining unbeaten on 85 off 50 balls,a knock that included nine sixes.

Maximum impact

For starters,the defending IPL champions made a serious blunder by leaving out the quickest bowler in their unit,not to forget their bowling mentor,Brett Lee. If anyone could have followed up the Steyn-Sharma formula,it would have been the veteran Australian pacer. With Lee not around,the rest of the Kolkata pacers had little clue to combat the Gayle blitz,as balls continued to soar into the stands across the Chinnaswamy Stadium,some into the top-most tiers.

Lees replacement Ryan McLaren though did show some promise of getting the ball consistently into Gayles,lets say unpowerful,area with an economical first over. He got five of his six deliveries on a good length and getting the new-ball to shape past the left-handers outside-edge. Thrice Gayle was forced to play and miss. McLaren though did err on one occasion with a short delivery that was despatched over mid-wicket for a boundary.

Orbit launcher

The next three balls that McLaren bowled to Gayle were hit into orbit. Two of them were pitched short and sat up to be clobbered over the leg-side and the third landed on a half-volley length,which was swatted over the covers with the RCB opener going down on one knee. At the other end,Virat Kohli too had started off on a slow note,managing just two runs off his first 10 deliveries. The McLaren over though opened up the floodgates for Kohli too as he smashed two boundaries. The rest was noise,a total of 22 runs from it.

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Sunil Narine,KKRs weapon,did keep up his reputation of being the hardest bowler to go after in the IPL,going for only 17 runs in his four overs. The rest though neither possessed his guile or the pace required to keep Gayle rooted on the back-foot. And they proved cannon fodder for the maniacal Bangalore smasher,with Lakshmipathy Balaji and Pradeep Sangwan facing the wrath.

Eventually RCB romped home and took over the No.1 spot in the points-table with Gayle launching Balaji off a delivery that pitched exactly where he loves them. Right under his bat,allowing him to tee off with glee. And once again,Gayle had left an opposition hapless and with no answers,still pondering over the same million dollar question of how to stop his onslaught.