By Suneer Chowdhary
Chris Gayle smashed his second IPL century and Bangalore reached a more than competitive 205 for six in their 20 overs. Gayle would have probably watched Virender Sehwag bashing the Chargers away yesterday. Or he was probably teeing off at a nearby golf course at Jamaica on both occasions. Because that is exactly what he did to the Punjab today.
Published: May 06, 2011, 09:49 PM (IST)
Edited: May 06, 2011, 09:49 PM (IST)
Bangalore’s Chris Gayle in action during his centruy agaisnt Punjab during their IPL match © AFP
By Suneer Chowdhary
Bengaluru: May 6, 2011
Chris Gayle would have probably watched Virender Sehwag bashing the Chargers away yesterday. Or Brendon McCullum in the first ever game of the IPL 2008.
Or he was probably teeing off at a nearby golf course at Jamaica on both occasions.
Because that is exactly what he did to the Kings XI Punjab today in the 47th game of the Indian Premier League at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Gayle smashed his second IPL century and Bangalore reached a more than competitive 205 for six in their 20 overs.
In the first two overs of the innings, he hit only one boundary, whilst jostling and swishing on the crease to try and get more. In fact, the second over was a maiden from Ryan Harris, while Praveen Kumar conceded only five in the third with Bangalore crawling to 17 without loss after three.
That was the calm before the storm came.
It took Gayle three overs to get his timing right. And when he did, there was no stopping him.
Harris was clobbered for a couple of sixes in a row, the first of three times he did that in his innings. Praveen was smacked for another two over the straight boundary in the seventh over while Piyush Chawla’s opening over and the 10th of the Bangalore innings was the third occasion when Gayle got his third brace of successive sixes.
The 100 of the innings came in the tenth over of the innings.
The bowler-bashing ceased to abate even after that. Love Ablish hammered three fours in a row in the 11th over before Abhishek Nayar was smashed for the eighth and McLaren for the ninth six of his innings. And of the team’s inning too.
Much like Sehwag yesterday, Gayle’s first 13 balls did not get him too many. He scored only six off them. He was on 29 off 23, before completing his 50 off the next five and another 50 in the next 18 balls.
In the process, Gayle became the first batsman in the history of IPL cricket to score two centuries. He got there off a straight-bludgeoned four and took only 46 balls.
Once Gayle had got to his century, he offered a difficult chance that was dropped at the boundary before getting out off the next ball.
Not that there weren’t others who got the scores.
Tillakaratne Dilshan, who has endured a poor IPL by his lofty standards, faced eight deliveries, smote four boundaries off them before offering a skier off McLaren.
Virat Kohli, who was involved in that 111-run second wicket stand with Gayle, also had four boundaries to his name, impaled by his partner at the other end. He survived a run-out chance and was afforded a life when the umpire failed to notice a nick to the wicket-keeper. He made 27 before becoming Chawla’s second victim in the same over as Gayle.
AB de Villiers had his moments under the lights too, as he splashed a couple of sixes and fours towards the end of the innings to get the Royal Challengers to more than 200. He remained unbeaten on 27.
For Punjab, Harris returned from the pounding that he had received in the second over to pick up three wickets off four balls but by then, the opposition had run away to a near-match winning total.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore went into the game with Asad Pathan replacing left-arm spinner Syed Mohammad. Love Ablish and Ryan McLaren were selected in the Punjab side.
Brief scores: RCB 205 for six in 20 overs (Chris Gayle 107, AB de Villiers 27*; Ryan Harris 3 for 38, Piyush Chawla 2 for 37) vs KXIP
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
