IPL 2015: Chris Gayle hundred helps Royal Challengers Bangalore rout Kings XI Punjab

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/may/06/ipl-royal-challengers-bangalore-kings-xi-punjab

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A magnificent century from Chris Gayle laid the foundations for an emphatic Royal Challengers Bangalore victory that ended Kings XI Punjab’s of progressing to the next phase of the Indian Premier League.

George Bailey’s Kings XI side were outclassed with bat and ball in succumbing to a crushing 138-run defeat – the second heaviest margin in the tournament’s history – after being bowled out for 88. Sreenath Aravind and Mitchell Starc did the damage for RCB with four wickets each.

Bailey had put the home side in after winning the toss but his team were soon suffering as Gayle, driving and pulling with a combination of exquisite timing and effortless clean hitting, struck 12 sixes and seven fours in his 57-ball innings. It helped RCB to a huge total of 226 for three off their 20 overs.

His opening partner, Virat Kohli, was content to play second fiddle for much of an opening stand of 119, though the RCB captain occasionally cut loose in a 30-ball knock of 32 that was brought to an end in the 12th over when he was bowled by a well-directed yorker from Sandeep Sharma, the pick of Kings XI’s weary bowling attack.

AB de Villiers helped Gayle maintain the innings’ momentum but the Jamaican remained the star turn, bringing up his century – his fifth in the IPL – in the 14th over.

Though he was twice dropped – by Bailey and Manan Vohra – Gayle was dominant and comfortable throughout his innings until he was finally dismissed by the spinner Axar Patel, who took a sharp return catch in the 17th over with the score on 190. De Villiers, who raced to an unbeaten 47 from 24 balls, and Sarfaraz Khan, with 11 from seven, then kept the scoreboard ticking over to ease the home side to a final total of 226 for three.

Kings XI needed their misfiring batsmen to score quickly from the start, but their opening partnership lasted only four balls, as Vohra was smartly caught low at extra cover off Starc, a dismissal confirmed after a TV umpire review.

The Bangalore bowlers managed to find a swing, bounce and accuracy that was largely absent when Kings XI were in the field and Harshal Patel soon dismissed the other opener, Murali Vijay, with a well angled delivery that clattered the top of middle stump.

It was Aravind who led the way though, prolonging Glenn Maxwell’s wretched run of form by uprooting his off-stump with the Australian on one, and then dismissing Wriddhiman Saha and David Miller in his third over. When Aravind bowled Bailey for two with a fine in-swinger, the visitors were 39-6 and the contest was effectively over.

Starc promptly rammed home RCB’s advantage with the cheap dismissals of his Australia team-mate Mitchell Johnson, Anureet Singh and Karanveer Singh, each seeing their stumps clattered by fast, accurate bowling. A valiant unbeaten 40 from Axar Patel then delayed the inevitable before the victory was wrapped up in the 14th over when the leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took a comfortable return catch to his left to dismiss the No11 Sandeep Sharma for seven.

The victory lifts Kohli’s team to third in the standings and leaves Kings XI facing a major challenge just to extricate themselves from the bottom before the end of the campaign.