Chris Gayle hit his second century in four matches to power Royal Challengers Bangalore to an 85-run victory over Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL) last night.
Gayle, the former West Indies captain, lashed 10 fours and nine sixes in his 49-ball 107 to help the home side post a commanding 205 for six off 20 overs after being put in to bat at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. He became the first player to score two centuries in IPL history.
Kings XI began their chase in disastrous fashion, losing Adam Gilchrist, the captain, run out off the first ball and Abhishek Nayar for one in the second over to crash to their fourth consecutive defeat.
Kings XI ended up only scoring 120 for nine off their 20 overs as Gayle took three for 21 to win the man-of-the-match award. Sreenath Aravind took four for 14 to give the Punjab side no chance to come back in the game.
The result pushed Bangalore up to fourth place in the table while Punjab remained second from bottom.
It was a day that saw a few batting records tumble as Gayle hit the ball all over the park. The West Indian, who played for Kolkata for the last two seasons, has now struck 21 sixes in the IPL, the highest in the tournament's history, three more than Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag's 18.
Out of Gayle's 107, on a spongy track, 94 came from fours and sixes, also an IPL record.
He was out in the 15th over, bowled by Piyush Chawla, the leg-spinner, as his pull shot landed into the hands of Ryan Harris at deep mid-wicket, much to the relief of Kings XI players.
Bangalore were 103 for one at the halfway mark and 154 for two when Gayle was out with the scoring rate over 10 runs per over.
His departure saw the scoring rate dip a bit, with Virat Kohli (27) out to the second ball after the fall of Gayle. Saurabh Tiwary (13) and Asad Pathan (0) fell to consecutive balls in the 18th over, bowled by the Australian Harris, who, however, failed to take a hat-trick.
The medium pacer, though, dismissed Mohammed Kaif (3) in the last over to finish the game with figures of three for 38. AB de Villiers remained not out on 27.
Gayle later said that there was a method to his madness, when he said: "The key actually is to pick your areas, it is not all about slogging, you have to target particular bowlers.
"I wanted to bat through the end but it did not happen. [But] AB got us past 200," he added.
Gilchrist admitted Gayle's knock had left them dazed. "That was a phenomenal knock. The wicket was doing a bit, he did not get bat on ball for 10 balls, then took the game away from us. We were shell-shocked actually," he said.
