Royal Challengers Bangalore 166-5(Chris Gayle 87, AB de Villiers 52, Parvinder Awana 4-34) beat Kings XI Punjab 163-6 (David Hussey 41, Azhar Mahmood 33*, Zaheer Khan 2-25) by 5 wickets.

The thunderous, Chris Gayle, supported by the sparkling AB de Villiers made life difficult for Kings XI Punjab as Royal Challengers Bangalore triumphed easily.

Kings XI Punjab scored 163 runs for the loss of six wickets in 20 overs and Royal Challengers Bangalore chased the target by smashing 166 runs with five wickets in hand in 19.3 overs.

Chris Gayle (Royal Challengers Bangalore) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his aggressive innings of 87 from 56 balls.

The 25^th encounter of the Indian Premier League 2012 was played at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh, on April 20, 2012. The large crowd gathered at the stadium enjoyed the match thoroughly but in the end their home team lost the absorbing match.

Earlier, the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore, Daniel Vettori, won the toss and opted to field while preferring to chase. Zaheer Khan struck early as Kings XI Punjab lost their openers for just 27 runs in five overs. Shaun Marsh and David Hussey joined together and started repairing the damage in a commanding way by sending the ball out of the rope thrice in the sixth over. The first fifty of the innings was completed on the last ball of the seventh over when Marsh hit a six over the bowler’s head.

The second wicket contributed 30 runs when Andrew McDonlad uprooted the stumps of Marsh for 26 off 17 balls with one six and three fours. David Hussey continued the acceleration with little assistance from the incoming batsman David Miller. Hussy was the fifth batsman who went back to the pavilion for 41 from 34 deliveries with 4 fours. Azhar Mahmood accelerated the innings by scoring 11 runs each from the 17^th and 18^th over with one six and three fours as Mandeep Singh kept on creeping from the other end.

Azhar remained unbeaten for 33 off just 14 balls with 2 sixes and 3 fours as Kings XI Punjab scored a reasonable total of 163 with four wickets in hand after burning their required quota of 20 overs.

Zaheer Khan and Andrew McDonald were the main wicket takers with two wickets each as Vinay Kumar and Harshal Patel claimed one wicket each.

Royal Challengers Bangalore opener, Chris Gayle, kept wondering at one end as the wickets were going down like nine pins from the other side. Three wickets were lost for mere 25 runs on board in 5.1 over as Parvinder made life difficult for the top order batsmen and grabbed all three wickets that fell.

AB de Villiers walked in the centre under critical conditions as Gayle opened his arms by getting a couple of fours in the sixth over. The pace of scoring was uplifted and the first fifty of the innings was completed in the 9^th over as de Villiers snatched 11 runs in the following over with 2 fours.

Gayle achieved his fifty on the third ball of the 13^th over by stealing a couple as de Villiers posted two more fours in the over and the boundaries were showering from both ends. Chris Gayle accumulated 13 runs from the 16^th over off Praveen Kumar with one six and a four as AB de Villiers scored his fifty on the fifth ball of the 17^th over with a four.

Royal Challengers Bangalore required just 24 runs to win the match from the last 18 deliveries when Gayle punished Parvinder Awana for 14 runs with one six and two fours. He was caught smartly by Hussey off Awana for a fabulous innings of 87 from just 56 balls with 4 huge sixes and 8 fours.

The fourth wicket was lost at 156 in 17.4 overs and two runs later, de Villiers was declared leg before wicket off Piyush Chawla for 52 off 39 deliveries with 6 fours as the real damage was done by the sparkling duo. The target was achieved on the third ball of the last over when Andrew McDonald hit a four and the score reached at 166 for the loss of five wickets.

The speedster Parvinder Awana was the highest wicket taker with four and Piyush Chawla chipped in with one wicket.

Points scored by two teams at the end of the 25^th match of the IPL 2012:

Royal Challengers Bangalore  –  6 from 6 games.

Kings XI Punjab                        –  4 from 6 games.