Thaindian News

Bangalore, May 8 (IANS) Chris Gayle was on fire again, hitting five mighty sixes in his rampaging 44 off 16 balls and powering Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to a nine-wicket victory over Kochi Tuskers for the home team’s fifth straight win here Sunday.

Set to score 126 in the stipulated 20 overs after restricting Tuskers to 125 for nine, RCB cruised to 128 runs in 13.1 overs for the loss of Gayle, who demolished Tuskers bowling along with Tillakaratne Dilshan (52 not out off 31 balls). The two massacred 67 runs off just 3.5 overs

The tall West Indian hunk, who has become a rage for his fearsome batting in the shorter version of the game, almost fashioned RCB’s victory in the third over of the innings when he hit rookie left-arm pacer Prasanth Parameswaran for four sixes and three fours to score a record 37 runs in seven balls, including a no-ball.

After Gayle ’storm’ hit Tuskers, Dilshan and Virat Kohli (27) completed the formalities, playing at ease to put up 61 runs for the second wicket.

RCB are now in third place with 13 points from 10 matches. Tuskers made their task of qualifying for the play-off difficult for them. They are in sixth place with 10 points from 11 matches.

Confirming the worst fears of Tuskers’ skipper Mahela Jayawardene, Gayle began the innings with a six in the first over of speedster R.P. Singh. Dilshan then hit
off-spinner Romesh Powar for three fours and a six.

Gayle snatched the match away in the third over, taking the score to 66. Parameswaran looked cluless as Gayle went on a hitting spree.

As is his wont, Gayle scored a ‘hat-trick’ by winning the Man of the Match award for the third time at home after similar feats against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) April 22 in Kolkata and Kings XI Punjab May 6 here.

Kochi Tuskers’ Vinay Kumar, who hails from Karnataka, took the lone wicket when he had Gayle’s off-stump uprooted.

Earlier, after Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat, openers Brendon McCullum and Michael Klinger made a breezy start with a flurry of boundaries.

The openers were quick to post 40 runs in the first five overs before a brilliant catch by RCB substitute Arun Karthik off skipper Vettori brought the end of McCullum, who made 22 runs with three boundaries.

Klinger and Parthiv Patel could add only 21 runs. Gayle scalped Klinger for 24.

Tuskers failed to forge a decent partnerhsip with RCB keeping it tight with some good bowling and fielding. The Tuskers struggled to find the boundaries.

Patel and Ravindra Jadeja tried to accelerate. The middle-order however collapsed thanks to some brilliant bowling and fielding by RCB.