Gayle first century

The pitch was proving to be tricky for the quicks and Kolkata opted to start with a spinner after having posted 171. Yusuf Pathan, who was battling a knee niggle, opened the bowling. After three good deliveries, Yusuf strayed on the leg stump and Dilshan cashed in with four through square leg. With that, the flood gates were opened.

Chris Gayle has arrived. He smashed his way to his first IPL century, the second-fastest in this edition of the competition, and was the architect of Bangalore’s victory over his former team, Kolkata. Gayle formed powerful partnerships with Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virat Kohli as Bangalore were untroubled in their chase of 172, winning by nine wickets.

In the fourth over, Gayle had scored just three singles – while Dilshan had notched up 19 – when he was offered a full toss. He drove it down past the non-striker for the first of his 17 boundaries. It didn’t matter what Bangalore tried after that. Jaidev Unadkat was dispatched with disdain as Gayle went down on one knee, smacking him for six over long-on. Shakib Al Hasan was tossed around like a limp ragdoll, slogged over midwicket and mowed over deep square. Yusuf was smoked through the covers. Gayle even showed a touch of deftness, playing one fine to the third man boundary.

The Gayle force blew on though. Together with Kohli, he brought the required run rate down to less than a run a ball. Kohli was given some room to express himself too, taking advantage of full balls offered by Balaji and showing off his wrist work against Bhatia. Kohli almost had too much fun and denied Gayle a century with a boundary off the first ball of the 18th over, that left Bangalore with just two to win. He blocked out the rest of the over to make amends.

It didn’t matter who was given the ball, even though spin proved difficult to get away during the Kolkata innings. Manoj Tiwary was slapped over long-on and even mishit for six. Medium pacer Rajat Bhatia was hit for 17 runs in his second over, 16 off Gayle’s bat. At the end of 12 overs, Bangalore were cruising on 123 for 1 when Dilshan was bowled by L Balaji, who controlled the swing admirably.

Yusuf, batting at four, allowed himself five balls to settle before depositing a Mohammed delivery over long-on. After Gambhir was caught by Dilshan at extra cover, Yusuf unleashed. He destroyed Aravind, pulling the short one for four, smashing the full one for six and dispatching the low full toss to the boundary.

The quicks redeemed themselves a bit with Khan bowling a decent last over, mixing up slower balls and yorkers, and Aravind claiming the wicket of Yusuf, who was trying to force the ball over long off but only got it as far as Kohli.