IPL 5: Gayle ton guides RCB to easy win vs DD

Riding on Chris Gayle’s unbeaten knock of 128 off 62 balls and then a brilliant bowling performance helped Royal Challengers Bangalore to beat Delhi Daredevils by 21 runs to keep their playoff hopes alive on Thursday.

The Feroz Shah Kotla crowd got the worth of their money by some blazing batting by both sides. Ross Taylor and Andre Russell’s late surge gave Delhi a chance for a win, but Bangalore well led by Virat Kohli managed to pick up wickets at regular intervals to leave them at 194 for 9. For Bangalore, Zaheer Khan took 3 for 38, Prasanth Parameswaran claimed 3 for 30 and Vinay Kumar chipped in with 2 for 35.

Chasing a huge total of 216, Delhi’s hope rested on David Warner (15), who started with two successive boundaries off Tillakaratne Dilshan, but in the second over Zaheer had the better of him. Warner trying to pull one short delivery off Zaheer loses his bat while playing the shot and the ball balloons to mid-off.

After that youngster Unmukt Chand (18) showed some spark by hitting two fours and a six, but then perished in the fifth over to Vinay Kumar. However, Bangalore continued to take wickets at regular intervals to keep Delhi on the back foot in their chase.

Coming on to bowl his first over, left-arm pace bowler Parameswaran induces an edge off Jayawardene (9) and AB de Villiers does the rest. When Taylor arrived at the crease he got into action straightaway and with Venugopal Rao tried to repair the innings. But Rao (36) couldn’t resist a tossed up ball from Muttiah Muralitharan and played straight down the throat of Harshal Patel at long-off.

With Taylor going ballistic in the middle overs that definitely gave Bangalore some scare, who made a quick-fire 55 off 25 balls which included seven fours and two sixes. Until Taylor was out there in the middle, Delhi sensed an outside chance of sneaking in a win but the fall of Taylor in the 17th over ended all hopes.

Earlier, Mahela Jayawardene made the mistake by asking Bangalore to bat and from then it was all Gayle show. The big West Indian batsman was in different mood at Kotla as he slammed an unbeaten 128 of 62 balls which was studded with 13 sixes and seven fours to take the visiting team to a mammoth 215 for 1.

Jayawardene who was in charge of Delhi in the absence of Virender Sehwag was at his wit’s end how to control Gayle. At the start, Gayle took some time to settle down and played 17 balls for his first 10 runs, but after that he got 90 in just 35 balls.

With Kohli (73 not out), Gayle put up a 204-run stand to go into the record books as the highest partnership in this season of IPL. Kohli looked in great touch and his unbeaten knock included 10 fours and one six.

All the Delhi bowlers went for runs and they surely missed the services of Morne Morkel, who was rested. Varun Aaron was the only successful bowler for Delhi, who claimed the lone wicket of Tillakaratne Dilshan (10) caught at mid-on by Irfan Pathan.

Delhi failed to put on brakes on Gayle whirlwind, as the left-handed batsman scored three sixes off Pathan and Pawan Negi, as Bangalore plundered 78 runs in the last five overs.

IPL 5: Rayudu, Pollard snatch victory from RCB

In a nail-biting finish, Mumbai Indians beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Despite losing half the side for just 51, Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard held their nerve to chase down 172-run target and snatch a sensational victory in the last over.

Chasing 172 to win, Mumbai were off to a disastrous start as as Zaheer Khan dismissed Sachin Tendulkar for a duck in the first over. In the second over, Gibbs was sent back following a brilliant piece of fielding by KP Appanna with scoreboard reading 4 for 2. Rohit was then dismissed for five in the fourth over and Mumbai were tottering at 19 for 3. Mumbai

wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik showed early signs of aggression but Muttiah Muralitharan had him caught at the fine-leg boundary for 16. Harshal Patel gave Mumbai fifth blow in the form of Dwayne Smith just after the visitors crossed 50-mark.

Rayudu and Pollard started constructing a fighting partnership and revived hopes of a Mumbai victory. The duo went berserk in the middle and started hitting the bowlers all around the park. Mumbai needed 57 for a win from the last four over. Zaheer bowled went for 16 in the 17th over as the Mumbai duo started to up the ante. In the next over of Vinay Kumar, Rayudu smashed two sixes and a boundary to turn the equation in favour of Mumbai.

The duo hit nine runs in the penultimate over off Zaheer, leaving Mumbai to score 14 in last over. Pollard then smashed Gayle for a six and two fours to seal the match for Mumbai.

Earlier, Mayank Agarwal's 64 off 30 balls powered the Royal Challengers Bangalore to 171 for 6. Rain delayed the start of play by 50 minutes and left the pitch a touch sluggish, but Agarwal rose to the occasion to strike his highest Twenty20 score.

Put into bat, Bangalore's hopes of a good start were jolted when Chris Gayle was bowled by Munaf Patel in the third over for six runs. Virat Kohli soon followed Gayle as he was run out after being involved in a mix-up with Tillakaratne Dilshan. At that stage Bangalore were 11 for 2. Saurabh Tiwary then Bangalore recover from a poor start before being dismissed for 21.

Suddenly, the hosts were in trouble at 47 for 3 by the seventh over. Dilshan and AB de Villiers had a brief partnership until the South African was dismissed by Kieron Pollard in the 12th over with the scoreboard reading 87 for 4. Agarwal's arrival at the crease up the ante for RCB and shared a crucial stand with Dilshan. The crucial stand of 46 ended when RP Singh bowled Dilshan for 47 in the 18th over.

Agarwal then took Malinga to the cleaners, collecting 13 runs in the penultimate over. He then went berserk as he took Munaf Patel to the cleaners in the 20th over. Agarwal stroked two sixes and two fours in a calculated assault in the last over as RCB picked up 24 runs in the last over.

IPL 5: Bangalore thrash Pune by 35 runs

Superb batting by Chris Gayle and disciplined bowling gave the Royal Challengers Bangalore a 35-run victory over the Pune Warriors India in their Indian Premier League match at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium on Friday. Chasing 174 to win, Pune's pursuit was effectively doomed from the start. Zaheer Khan struck twice in one over, first ge got better off Mohnish Mishra (4) and, two balls later, the left-armer showed his wonderful skills with a delivery that pitched off and hit off to remove Manish Pandey for a duck.

Australian skipper Michael Clarke (13) yet again came a cropper. Robin Uthappa's 38 and Anustup Majumdar's 31 in the middle order kept their side in the hunt but once the duo departed it was just a formality. Steven Smith's unbeaten 24 did nothing more than delay the inevitable. R Vinay Kumar (3 for 32), Muttiah Muralitharan (2 for 16) and Zaheer (2 for 21) all contributed in Pune's rout by striking intermittently.

While Bangalore are now placed third in the table with 15 points, the Warriors slumped to their seventh straight defeat and continue to languish at number eight.

Earlier, Chris Gayle unfurled a whirlwind half-century as Bangalore posted 173 for 3. Gayle hammered 57 off 31 balls to take Bangalore to 80 for 1 in the ninth over but, despite Tillakaratne Dilshan's 53, the visitors faded away in the second half of their innings. The left-hander then had no pity on seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar as he belted him for four sixes in the sixth over, reaching his half-century off just 24 balls.

Sri Lankan paceman Angelo Mathews was the most economical and successful bowler as he gave away just 14 runs in his three overs. Mathews brought relief for the hosts when he had Gayle caught at long-on, where Manish Pandey took a simple catch. RCB still maintained a good run-rate and were 88 for 1 at half-way stage.

But skipper Virat Kohli under-performed again as he was caught off the leading at short-cover off legspinner Rahul Sharma for just 9 and Dilshan eventually fell for 53 as he was run out. Once Dilshan departed, Tiwary hit some lusty blows towards the end, finishing with 36 not out off 30 balls. AB de Villiers was left in the dugout until the 18th over and could face just four balls, scoring nine not out, before the end of the innings.

IPL 5: RCB ride on Gayle's blitz to hammer MI

Mumbai: Chris Gayle's powerful hitting helped Royal Challengers Bangalore crush Mumbai Indians by nine wickets in the 54th Indian Premier League match season five at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Gayle scored 82 off 59 balls and along with Virat Kohli (36 off 25) ensured that RCB won with 2 overs to spare. The emphatic win takes RCB to fourth position in the points table while Mumbai Indians occupy the third spot.

Chasing 142 runs to win, Gayle remained quite in the early part but exploded later on, hitting five fours and six sixes. Gayle was though lucky early in his innings as he was dropped by Dwayne Smith off the bowling of R P Singh when he was on 21.

Skipper Kohli, remained not out on 36 while Tillakaratne Dilshan, with whom Gayle shared 48 runs for the first wicket, scored 19. Gayle and Kohli ensured the visitors' victory with an unbeaten second wicket partnership of 94 runs in just 58 balls. Gayle's 59-ball blitz was his fourth 80-plus knock this IPL season. Gayle reached his fifty with a huge six of Pragyan Ojha in the 11th over. He struck Ojha for three successive sixes in that over.

Earlier, Bangalore bowlers dominated in the first innings as they restricted the Mumbai Indians to 141 for 6 in their quota of overs. Opting to bowl first, Bangalore struck two early blows to Mumbai as Vinay Kumar got rid of James Franklin and Rohit Sharma in the second over of the innings with scored board reading 2 for 2.

Dinesh Karthik then joined Sachin Tendulkar in the middle and the duo then tried to stabilise the batting as Tendulkar, who hit four fours in his knock shared 39 runs with Karthik. But Tendulkar's knock of 24 off 27 balls came to an end when he tried to pull Harshal from outside off stump and could only sky a return catch to the 21-year-old. Mumbai were tottering at 41 for 3 in the ninth over.

But Karthik and Ambati Rayudu consolidated with a stand of 44 in five-and-a-half overs, before Rayudu slapped Harshal to long-off to be dismissed for 22. Soon Karthik had to take long walk back to the pavilion as he was dismissed by Muttiah Muralitharan in the sixteenth over after making valiant 44 runs. Hero of the last match, Dwayne Smith was sent back in the next delivery as he gave a catch to Vinay Kumar and Mumbai were in deep trouble at 100 for 6.

But from there Kieron Pollard (21 not out) hammered two sixes in the final over of the innings. He shared an unbroken stand of 41 in 4.1 overs with Harbhajan Singh (20 not out) to help Mumbai Indians post a respectable total of 141 on the board.

IPL 5: Nervous Punjab hold on to beat Bangalore

Kings XI Punjab kept their nerves towards the end of their chase to register a four-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in an Indian Premier League (IPL) nail-biter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. Chasing 159 to win, the visitors were on their way to an easy win at one time with just 13 runs needed to close out the match, but a flurry of wickets, especially three run-outs, took the match into the last over.

With five runs required in the last over to win, Piyush Chawla smashed Vinay Kumar for a six off the fifth ball to see his team home.

Nitin Saini (50), David Hussey (45) and Mandeep Singh (43) played crucial hands in the chase. This was Punjab’s second successive win and now they lie fourth in the standings with five wins in 10 matches, while Bangalore lost their second successive match to be 6th.

Punjab got off to a good start with Mandeep and Shaun Marsh adding 38 off 28 balls. Mandeep did the bulk of the scoring in a 38-run partnership that was ended by Andrew McDonald, who cleaned up Marsh for 8. Mandeep was impressive during his innings before being trapped in front of the stumps by K Appanna. His wicket gave Punjab some hope but Saini and captain Hussey were determined to take the team over the line, especially Saini who showed a lot of nous during his stay. He and Hussey added 73 to take the visitors within 13 runs of victory. But those 13 runs took a lot of getting with Saini falling to Zaheer Khan and the run-outs of Abhishek Nayar, Hussey and Azhar Mahmood.

Earlier, after being put into bat, Bangalore lost Mayank Agarwal early as Aussie Ryan Harris – playing his first match this season - sent his off-stump cartwheeling with only seven runs on the board. Virat Kohli joined Chris Gayle and began a partnership that at one time threatened to take the game away from the visitors. Parvinder Awana and Chawla in particular were at the receiving end as Gayle played some mutilating shots. Both added 119 runs off 83 balls as the team headed for a big total but Punjab’s Pakistani import Mahmood came back to end the West Indian’s innings with a well-aimed bouncer in the 16th over.

Gayle scored 71 off 42 balls with six boundaries and four sixes to take his IPL tally to 407 runs in nine matches this season. One of his sixes travelled 111 metres, an IPL 5 record. Chawla then got in on the act and accounted for Kohli in the next over. The India batsman made 45 off 42 balls and played a perfect foil to Gayle. The twin blow reined in the hosts’ innings. The Mahmood-led Punjab bowling came up trumps yielding just 36 runs in the last five overs. Mahmood, who also has the citizenship of England, sent back McDonald and AB de Villiers in the last over to restrict Bangalore to 158 for 5, which was at least 20 runs fewer.

IPL 5: Gayle, de Villiers end Bangalore drought with win versus Pune

Bangalore: AB de Villiers and Saurabh Tiwary took the required 21 runs off the last over bowled by Ashish Nehra to take Royal Challengers Bangalore to a thrilling six-wicket win against Pune Warriors India at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.

Chasing 183 to win, Bangalore got off to a poor start, with Tillakaratne Dilshan (4) and Mayank Agarwal (9) getting out cheaply to Ashok Dinda and Marlon Samuels respectively. Virat Kohli too failed with the bat and when he got out for 16 with only 72 runs on the board in the 12th over, the match seemed to getting out of Bangalore’s grasp. But opener Chris Gayle had other ideas. The burly West Indian hit Rahul Sharma for five consecutive sixes in the 13th over to bring his team back into the contest. Ashish Nehra provided another twist in the tale, bowling Gayle for 81 with an inch-perfect yorker in the 16th over. At that time, the hosts still needed 56 off 26 balls to win.

de Villiers (33 off 14 balls) and Tiwary (36 off 23 balls) had a big job on their hands after Gayle’s departure and they kept Bangalore in the hunt with some lusty blows. Thanks to their big hitting, the equation came down to 28 off 12 balls. In such a crunch situation, fast bowler Dinda bowled the penultimate over and took the match almost beyond Bangalore’s reach by conceding just seven runs. Former India pacer Nehra, however, could not do what Dinda did in the 19th over. de Villiers hit 4,6,6 to bring down the equation to 3 off one ball and Tiwary lofted it over the long-on boundary for a six to bring an end to Bangalore’s run of three successive defeats.

Earlier, electing to bat first, Pune got off to a rollicking start, with Robin Uthappa and Jesse Ryder taking the Bangalore bowlers to the cleaners. Both added 63 runs in seven overs before Ryder holed out to Agarwal off the bowling of Harshal Patel. Ryder took 22 balls for his 34 and hit four fours and one six.

Captain Sourav Ganguly’s poor run with the bat continued as he limped to six off eight balls before giving Agarwal his second catch of the night. Despite Ganguly’s struggles, Uthappa kept up his onslaught at the other end and that largely accounted for the 45-run partnership between the two. Soon after Ganguly’s departure, Uthappa followed suit but he had done his job by that time. He consumed just 45 balls for his 69 and hit nine boundaries and two towering sixes.

Thereafter, Marlon Samuels and last match’s hero Steven Smith took up the scoring reins. Both added a quickfire 47 off 23 balls to ensure the Pune team posed a mammoth total. Samuels made a 20-ball 34 with the help of one four and two sixes, while Smith made 16 off 14 balls. After their departures in quick succession, Angelo Mathews (10) and Mithun Manhas (6 not out) chipped in to take Pune to 182 for 6. Vinay Kumar picked up two wickets to be the best bowler for Bangalore, while Patel and captain Daniel Vettori took one wicket apiece.

Despite the win, Bangalore remain in 8th with their second win in five matches, while Pune also remain third in the table with their second defeat in five matches.