IPL 2017 | Gayle and Kohli set up much-needed victory for Royal Challengers Bangalore

IPL 2017 | Gayle and Kohli set up much-needed victory for Royal Challengers Bangalore

no photo

|

Bcci

Virat Kohli (64) and Chris Gayle (77) came to the party as the Royal Challengers Bangalore batting unit finally fired and set up a comfortable 21 run victory for RCB over Gujarat Lions. Yuzvendra Chahal’s 3/31 with the ball meant that Brendon McCullum’s 72 went in vain for the Lions.

Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 213/2 (Chris Gayle 77, Virat Kohli 64; Basil Thampi 1/31, Dhawal Kulkarni 1/37) defeated Gujarat Lions 192/7 ( Brendon McCullum 72, Ishan Kishan 39; Yuzvendra Chahal 3/31, Pawan Negi 1/21) by 21 runs

Suresh Raina won the toss and chose to bowl first indicating that his side prefers to chase, while also mentioning that Aaron Finch, Dhawal Kulkarni, and Koushik had come in for Jason Roy, Munaf Patel, and Praveen Kumar. Meanwhile, last season's runners-up Virat Kohli confirmed that Chris Gayle and Travis Head had been included in the squad in place of Ab de Villiers and Samuel Badree who were missing the game due to niggles.

Gayle plays himself in before unloading on the Lions bowling

Having not been among the runs in recent games Chris Gayle had to justify the confidence RCB had shown in picking him and understandably Gayle started cautiously. Virat Kohli, on the other hand, took the attack to Gujarat, scoring a boundary in each of the first two overs despite struggling to find his timing. But he found his range in the third over of the game, as he smashed Dhawal Kulkarni for three consecutive boundaries to take the RCB score to 25 off 3 overs.

With a single in the fourth over, Gayle reached the milestone of 10,000 runs in T20’s and celebrated the achievement with a six off the very next ball. But, Andrew Tye slowed down the run rate giving only 3 runs off the fifth over and after the powerplay, RCB found themselves at 45/0.

Gayle quickly switched gears after the powerplay depositing Shivil Kaushik for a six and followed it up with two boundaries and two sixes off a Ravindra Jadeja over as Bangalore finally put their foot on the accelerator. Gayle brought up his half-century with another monstrous hit off Kaushik and at the halfway stage, RCB found themselves at 92/0.

Jadhav and Head finish off in style

In the eleventh over, Gayle took compatriot Dwayne Smith to the cleaners with two big sixes straight back over his head. The Gaylestorm had finally arrived in the IPL and it was looking seemingly unstoppable but Basil Thampi ended his innings with a fast yorker that trapped him in front, in the 12th over. However, by that time, Kohli already had his eye in and brought up his fifty in the 15th over, before falling to Kulkarni in the next one.

With 5 overs to go, RCB were set for a massive total, and Travis Head and Kedar Jadhav made sure they got it. Head hit Thampi, Gujarat’s best bowler of the day, to consecutive boundaries in the 18th over while Jadhav followed it up by hitting Andrew Tye for 19 runs in the penultimate over before launching into Jadeja in the final over, smashing him for a six and 2 fours as RCB finished at a mammoth 213/2 in their 20 overs.

RCB strike early before McCullum takes charge

Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum made a watchful start in the first over before Smith top-edged one to Mandeep Singh. Suresh Raina promoted himself up the order and settled down by hoisting Sreenath Aravind for six in the third over and followed it up with another maximum over the bowler’s head off the very next ball before finishing the over with a boundary.

McCullum got in on the act by smashing Chahal for six in the next over for the Lions but Raina’s cameo was ended when he picked out Watson in the same over. At the end of the powerplay, Lions were at 57/2 with the required run rate at 11.21. McCullum, though, was up for the challenge as he combined with Finch to score 46 off the next 4 overs, which included 3 sixes & 3 fours. In the process, McCullum brought up his 13th IPL half-century with a six off Negi in the 10th over. However, Negi had Finch stumped in the same over and at the halfway mark Gujarat were at 103/3.

Chahal returns to end Gujarat’s hopes

It was nine years to the day that McCullum set the IPL alight with an unforgettable 157* off 73 balls against the Royal Challengers Bangalore and once again, he looked set for a big one. He was joined by Ravindra Jadeja in the middle and the duo kept chipping away at the target to take Gujarat to 134/4 off 14 overs. Kohli turned towards Chahal, who repaid his captain’s faith by getting McCullum to sky a simple catch to Milne at mid-wicket, putting an end to Gujarat’s hopes. Ishan Kishan came out fighting but his cameo of 39 from 15 balls was too little too late as RCB won by 21 runs.

Get updates! Follow us on

Open all