Press trust of india
Kolkata, April 11: When Chris Gayle bats, the fielders became spectators and the spectators became fielders. The joke, which erupted after the Caribbean’s 66 ball 175 against former IPL team Pune Warriors, came true once again when he single-handedly punished Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to earn a three wicket win for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Eden Gardens here Saturday.
Gayle (96, 56b, 7×4, 7×6) led from the forefront against his former side to end their 10 match winning streak in IPL. Apart from Gayle, only Virat Kohli (13) and AB de Villiers (28, 13b, 3×4, 2×6) were able to put double digit figures. Morne Morkel perhaps will never forget this night. After receiving a Man-of-the-match award in his last encounter, Morkel turned out to be a villain to Kolkata after dropping the Jamaican twice. Had Morkel taken him once, there was no scope for RCB to come back and win the game.
Put into bat earlier, KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir (58, 46b, 7×4, 1×6) played an useful knock once again. He and Robin Uthappa scored 81 runs in the opening stand to put RCB in extreme pressure. However, their partnership didm’t last longer as Uthappa was caught at long-on to Darren Sammy. Yusuf Pathan and last match’s hero Suryakumar Yadav went back to back in quick succession thereafter putting the pressure this time for the Kolkata side.
But there came the quickfire innings of Andre Russell. He punished all the RCB bowler mercilessly to put KKR past 150-run mark. KKR finally managed to score 177 for the loss of six wickets but they fell short of 15-20 runs which would secure them a commendable position.
Though RCB had a tight batting libne-up, they never looked to chase down the total. Captain Virat Kohli took a gamble and came as an opener. Though his trick was not successful as he could only manage 13 runs. Big buy Dinesh Karthik did not live upto his name and was clean bowled by parttime spinner Yusuf Pathan (2/40).
AB de Villiers came as a rescuer for RCB with his waves of fours and sixes. But he fell trap of debutant spinner KC Cariappa. Looking for another step out, he was stumped by Robin Uthappa.
But the match was going for KKR’s favour, Gayle calmly did the rest and Harshit Patel’s four in the last ball of 19th over secured the victory for Virat Kohli’s men.
Brief scores:
KKR 177 for six (Gautam Gambhir 58, Andre Russell 41 n o) lost to RCB 179 for seven (Chris Gayle 96; Yusuf Pathan 2/40) by three wickets
