Bangalore: Saurabh Tiwary and AB de Villiers smashed 21 runs off Ashish Nehra's last over as Royal Challengers Bangalore came out of nowhere to steal a 6-wicket win over Pune Warriors at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here, on Tuesday after Chris Gayle have set the home side on the path of big speed with a murderous 81 .
Set a target of 183 by Pune, Bangalore was jolt when Gayle was clean up by a Nehra yorker and with 56 needed off 26 balls; the Indian paceman knew the scale had skewed yet again. What followed rival the frenzy of Chris Gayle assault. Ashok Dinda bowled a great 19th over for just 7run, leaving Bangalore 21 to get in the final over.
Nehra limited Tiwary to a single on the 1st ball. De Villiers lost his balance 2nd ball attempting a Dil-scoop, and yet managed to get the ball to the four. Immediately the South African made amends for his off-kilter shot with 2 fantastic sixes.
Nehra was confused. Four needed off 2balls, as the rain came down, but nobody, least of the batsmen, were in the mood to troop off. De Villiers scampered a single, leaving the home team 3 runs to get for a excellent last-ball win. The left-arm paceman charged in, erred on the fuller side and Tiwary - may the Lord sanctify his brave soul - flat-batted it with every his might over long-on.
What a win for Bangalore, and what a wonderful performance by the man who set it up - Gayle! The West Indian hammered 6 sixes - 5 successively off a distraught Rahul Sharma after an unusually subdued start. He scored just 3 off his 1st 8 balls, but garnered momentum with a four and a couple of sixes against Nehra early in his knock. The hulking West Indian reached a swelling of brutality when a series of 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, and 6 sought to salvage Bangalore, who was stare down the barrel at 72 for 3 in the 12th over.
Such was Gayle's power on the contest that it overshadows the exploits of Pune after they had selected to bat. Robin Uthappa and Jesse Ryder lived up to their promise of not reserved aggression at the top of the order. Uthappa made clear his intent in the 2nd over, slog-sweeping Dilshan for 6, and kept the fours flowing as Ryder too got into act at the other end.
The pair added 63 in 7 overs, at which point the chunky New Zealander top-edged and was held at Deep Square. Ganguly came and not here in a hurry, timing a sweet cut directly into the hands of Mayank Agarwal at deep point, but Uthappa nonstop to get fast runs and reached his half-century in 33 balls with a boundary off Dilshan.
The great right-hander was handed a couple of reprieve - a missed run-out by Dilshan and a rough high chance by Apanna at the long-off boundary - but was unable to create the lives count as he was out after adding just8 to his score. It was time then for Marlon Samuels to make it happen. The West Indian sped to a 20-ball 34, adding 47 in under 5 overs with Steve Smith, as Pune looked set, shortly, to breach the 200 mark, but fell well short of the magical mark.
Man of the match:
Chris Gayle
Today Match {18-04-12}
Kings XI Punjab
Kolkata Knight Riders
(20:00 local | 14:30 GMT)
