Chris Gayle capped a night of record- shattering acts at the Chinnaswamy Stadium with a brilliant unbeaten 175 off 66 balls, hitting a whopping 13 fours and 17 sixes. This propelled Royal challengers to 263 before restricting Pune Warriors to 133 to record a 130-run victory.
It was a Gayle show like never before. In a superlative display of effortless hitting, the West Indian set the stadium on fire and also emerged as the highest individual scorer in T20, surpassing Brendon McCullum’s 158 in IPL 2008. The bowlers were a confused lot--they came over the wicket, switched to around the wicket but it didn’t matter. They were dispatched with regal disdain and over the stadium terraces too. After a 30-minute rain break, Gayle hammered Pandey for three fours and what followed was a shower of sixes as the Pune bowlers were like lambs to the slaughter.
Imparting awesome power with minimum of movement, Gayle was severe on anything pitched on the leg side and a mere swing sent the ball sailing over square or fine leg.
He also played some feisty sliced shots and exquisite cover drives. The other batsmen only had to keep their ends up and watch the assault. With Tillakaratne Dilshan (33) put on 167 runs for the opening wicket. Virat Kohli failed but AB de Villiers made a breezy 31.
In the end, it was all but over even before Pune began the chase. A 58-run stand for the fifth wicket between Aussies Steven Smith (41) and Mitchell Marsh (25) was all that Pune had to show for their efforts. But after their departure, it was a question of the defeat-margin.
Gayle bowled the final over and claimed two wickets as well. And out came the Gangnam dance too.