Chris Gayle once again showed why he is considered such an asset in this format, Gayle has been responsible for Royal Challengers Bangalore success in IPL-4 and he once played the innings that turned the match on its head.
Some phenomenal hitting by Chris Gayle helped RCB chase down 183 runs against Pune Warriors, reports The Indian Express. Gayle in his innings of 81 hit eight towering sixes, including five consecutive sixes that he hit in Rahul Sharma’s over.
RCB needed three runs on the final ball and on strike was a batsman who struggled to find his feet so far in the tournament. Ashish Nehra bowled the last ball which was hit by Saurabh Tiwary for a straight six.
Apart from Chris Gayle, another international player was the reason why RCB pulled off this miraculous chase. AB de Villiers scored an unbeaten 33 of just 13 balls, the innings that included two fours and three sixes, reports The Times of India.
The South African captain had a 59 run stand with Tiwary and ensured that the home team comes out on top. RCB at one time needed 66 runs in five overs and it looked that Pune will continue their good run, but Bangalore batsmen had different plan as they came out as winners in another last-ball finish.
Earlier in the day, Pune Warriors once again got a fine opening stand as both their opener hit timely boundaries and kept the RCB bowler under check. Uthappa (69) and Ryder (34) set the stage for the rest of the batting line-up, reports The Hindu.
Pune after the 11 over mark was 101 for one and looked good to take the score past 200, but their late order batsmen failed capitalize on the start, resulting in them falling short of their mark.
Steven Smith and Marlon Samuels timely run-outs made sure that RCB will have to chase a total under 200.