Gayle century lights up the Kotla

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Cricket365
May 17, 2012

Chris Gayle sent the records tumbling on Thursday as his 128 not out led Royal Challengers Bangalore to a 21-run victory over the Delhi Daredevils on Thursday.

Gayle battered an incredible 13 sixes in his 62-ball innings, and shared an unbroken double-century stand with Virat Kohli as Bangalore posted 215 for one – the highest total of the 2012 Indian Premier League season.

That was always likely to be too much for the hosts, and despite the best efforts of Ross Taylor, they could only manage 194 for nine in response.

There was simply no stopping Gayle, as he took his run tally for the IPL season to a mammoth 706 in 13 innings at an average of 64 with an incredible assault.

Many of his sixes were enormous, regularly clocking in around the 110-metre mark, and yet the most astounding might well have been an intentional slice over the wide third man boundary in the final over of the innings.

In any other match Kohli's unbeaten 73 from 53 balls would have grabbed headlines, but here he was merely a supporting act in a 204-run partnership.

The Daredevils were already guaranteed a place in the playoffs, and were without the services of their regular skipper Virender Sehwag for their penultimate group clash.

India batsman Sehwag was forced to sit out the game due to illness, leaving Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene to take over the captaincy with Unmukt Chand replacing the opener in the line-up.

That put extra responsibility on David Warner at the top of the order, but after slugging three quick boundaries he was caught at mid-off to depart for just 15.

Jayawardene failed along with Chand to leave Delhi reeling, but Taylor's arrival at the crease changed things as the Daredevils suddenly began to make a fist of a seemingly impossible chase.

Taylor hammered nine boundaries and was well supported by Venugopal Rao as the pair kept up with the required run-rate of 12 per over, before Rao (36) was outwitted by Muttiah Muralitharan.

Taylor kept going and went past fifty, and found new support in the big-hitting Andre Russell.

However just as the West indian looked likely to forge a serious partnership with the Kiwi, Taylor holed out to deep midwicket to depart for 55 from 26 balls.

That left Russell with too much to do, meaning his 15-ball 31 was for nothing more than entertainment as Delhi fell short.

With 17 points to their name, Bangalore must now win their final group game against lowly Deccan Chargers to book their place in the next round.