Catch me if you can! – Chris Gayle 175*

Royal Challengers Bangalore 5-263 (Chris Gayle 175*, Tillakaratne Dilshan 33, Ashok Dinda 2-48) beat Pune Warriors 9-133 (Steven Smith 41, Mitchell Marsh 25, Chris Gayle 2-5) by 130 runs.

Chris Gayle became the most horrifying batsman in the history of T20 by plundering a majestic knock 175 vs. Pune Warriors as RCB amassed the highest total of IPL.

Gayle faced 66 mere deliveries for his thundering unbeaten 175 runs that comprised 17 wall crossing sixes and 13 untouchable fours. He beat the previous highest individual score of 158* smashed by AB de Villiers with 13 grand sixes and 10 fours playing for Kolkata Knight Riders against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 18, 2008.

Royal Challengers Bangalore became the only team to score 5- 263 in 20 overs in the IPL vs. Pune Warriors, overtaking the previous tall figures of 5-246 by Chennai Super Kings against the formidable Rajasthan Royals on April 3, 2010, at Chennai.

Royal Challengers Bangalore hammered the historical 263 runs with half of their side back in the pavilion in the allotted 20 overs and Pune Warriors were restricted to 9-133.

Chris Gayle - A historical unbeaten knock of 175 from 66 mere balls
Chris Gayle – A historical unbeaten knock of 175 from 66 mere balls

Chris Gayle (Royal Challengers Bangalore) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his historical unbeaten innings of 175.

The exciting 31st match of the Indian Premier League was played on Tuesday, April 23, 2013, at M Chinnaswammy Stadium, Bangalore.

Earlier, the skipper of Pune Warriors, Aaron Finch, won the toss and to his bad luck, he invited the rival team for batting. Chris Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan walked in to open the innings for Royal Challengers Bangalore and the first scored one run from three balls he faced. Gayle hit 2 back to back fours on the first two deliveries of the next over when the rain stopped the play for about 30 minutes. The master blaster welcomed the bowler with 3 fours on the remaining four balls as Dilshan got 2 fours in the following overs. Gayle murdered Mitchell Marsh for 28 runs in the fifth over with 4 towering sixes and 1 four and attained his fifty on just 17 balls.

Chris Gayle continued with his blistering knock by hitting 6 gigantic sixes and 2 fours in the 7th  and  8th over while blasting his ton on the 37th ball with another six. The gigantic opening wicket partnership was broken at 167 in just 13.4 overs when Dilshan was gone for 33. Virat Kohli joined in with the dangerous man Gayle who was unstoppable and the runs were going out of his willow like bullets. Gayle added another 27 runs in the 15th over with 3 lofty sixes and 2 fours and crossed his 150 runs mark.

Kohli was run out for 11 and was replaced by AB de Villiers who scored 10 from two balls he faced with 1 six and 1 four. Gayle continued showering boundaries as de Villiers hit another 2 sixes and 1 four before he was caught by Mithun Minhas off Mitchell Marsh for 31. Chris Gayle secured his end with a swinging unbeaten knock of 175 with 17 huge sixes and 13 well timed fours as Royal Challengers Bangalore  piled up 263 for the loss of five wickets in 20 overs.

Ashok Dinda was the top wicket taker with two whereas Mitchell Marsh and Luke Wright claimed one wicket each.

Pune Warriors lost Robin Uthappa for a duck as Yuvraj Singh got together with Aaron Finch who took off with 2 fours followed by another two boundaries in the fourth over. Finch lost his wicket at 28 after contributing 18 and the next batsman, Luke Wright was caught by AB de Villiers off Jaydev Unadkat for seven. The third wicket fell at 38 in 5.2 overs and four runs later Yuvraj Singh went back to the dressing room for 18 as Steven Smith and Mitchell Marsh associated in the center.

The score board started moving briskly as the two batsmen managed 22 runs in the coming  overs with 1 six and 3 fours. Smith was the most daring of the two, he was sending the ball out of fence regularly and the hundred of the innings was achieved in the 13th over. Steven Smith was caught by Dilshan at deep midwicket off Rampaul for 41 from 31 with 6 fours and Marsh did not last long as his stumps were dislodged by Vinay Kumar at 25. The lower order batting was crippled by the rival bowlers and Pune Warriors scored just 133 runs with one wicket remaining in 20 overs.

Ravi Rampaul, Jaydev Unadkt and Chris Gayle were the most successful bowlers with two wickets each whereas Murali Kartik, RP Singh and Vinay Kumar shared one wicket each.

Royal Challengers Bangalore triumphed in the match with a massive margin of 130 runs and have grabbed the top position in the table with 12 points.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.