Saturday 14 May 2011

Play-offs for RCB Gayle, rain hurt Knight Riders RCB go top of the table, also confirm play-offs berth Another Man of the Match award for Gayle

Also takes Orange Cap
Bangalore, May 14
Chris Gayle plundered 38 runs in a 12-ball blitzkrieg as Royal Challengers Bangalore scored an emphatic four-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders under Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-truncated match to seal a play-offs berth in Indian Premier League here today. Gayle continued with his batting pyrotechnics in IPL 4 as he hit six fours and two sixes to score all but two runs of his 38 from boundaries to send the packed home crowd at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium into a frenzy.

With the towering West Indian laying a strong foundation at the top of the order, RCB chased down the revised target of 102 with three balls to spare after the match was reduced to a 13-over-a-side affair due to two-hour rain interruption during the KKR innings. RCB overhauled the target, reaching 105 for six in 12.3 overs to notch up their eighth win in the tournament.
Earlier, sent into bat, KKR made 89 for four from their reduced 13 overs. But they would have been worse had Yusuf Pathan (36) and Manoj Tiwary (19 not out) not conjured a fighting 53-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
With the win today, RCB jumped to the top of the table with 17 points from 12 matches. KKR remained on fourth spot with 14 points from 12 matches. It was Gayle all the way, delighting the 45,000-strong crowd that had patiently sat through two spells of rain which stole more than two hours of play during KKR innings after RCB stand-in skipper Virat Kohli sent them in.
Gayle took 16 runs off fast bowler Brett Lee's first over and then savaged 23 runs of the next over bowled by Jaidev Unadkat. Even before KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir had blinked his eyes, RCB had galloped to 44 runs in barely 16 balls. Had the marauding Gayle hung around a wee bit longer, the home side would have possibly won the match much before they eventually did.
Chancing his arms once too often, Gayle miscued an intended lofted drive off Lee to Kallis at backward point in the third over. In scoring 38 today, Gayle took his aggregate to 436 runs in seven innings in IPL 4, bettering Virender Sehwag, to take possession of the Orange cap. — PTI
Scoreboard
Knight Riders
Kallis c Arun b Langeveldt 17
Morgan c Pomersbach
b Zaheer 2
Gambhir c de Villiers
b Aravind 7
Tiwary not out 19
Yusuf c Mithun
b Langeveldt 36
Boucher not out 1
Extras (b 4, lb 1, w 2) 7
Total (4 wkts; 13 overs) 89
Bowling: Zaheer 3-0-17-1, Langeveldt 3-0-10-2, Mithun 2-0-14-0, Gayle 1-0-11-0, Kohli 1-0-14-0.
Royal Challengers
Gayle c Kallis b Lee 38
Pomersbach c Unadkat b Kallis 16
Kohli c Boucher b Kallis 15
de Villiers not out 13
Kaif c Bhatia b Unadkat 15
Arun c Unadkat b Abdulla 1
Tiwary run out 1
Mithun not out 0
Extras (w 6) 6
Total (6 wkts; 12.3 overs) 105
Bowling: Lee 3-0-31-1, Unadkat 2-0-30-1, Kallis 3-0-16-2, Abdulla 3-0-18-1, Balaji 1.3-0-10-0.
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