IPL 6: Record-breaking Chris Gayle stuns Pune as RCB go back to No. 1

IPL 6, 2013

Bangalore: There are blazing Twenty20 innings and there are ones like Chris Gayle played on Tuesday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Pune Warriors captain Aaron Finch had won the toss and asked Royal
Challengers Bangalore to bat, but his decision came a cropper as Gayle slammed an unbeaten 175 off 66 balls, in the process breaking a spate of records, to power the hosts to 263 for 5. Pune never even came close and ended on 133 for 9 to hand RCB victory by a whopping 130 runs. With that, the home team went back to top of the IPL 6 leaderboard.

Rarer has the cricket ball been bludgeoned with such precision, authority and panache. It was just that special an innings from Gayle. The West Indian opener was aggression personified from the start of his innings, driving the first two balls of the second over, bowled by medium-pacer Ishwar Pandey, for boundaries through the cover before a brief rain shower interrupted play. On resumption 35 minutes later, Gayle took three more fours off Pandey.

The fifth over of the innings saw Gayle pummel medium-pacer Mitchell Marsh for 28 runs: the first two deliveries flew for sixes over long-on and extra cover, the third was sliced over point for four and after a dot the last two balls were also swung for big sixes. Off the sixth ball, Gayle reached his half-century in 17 balls to give Marsh the most expensive over in the season.The seventh over cost 17 as left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza was carted for a four and two sixes. Gayle then trained his attention on Finch, whose decision to bowl himself for some part-time spin broke the record set off Marsh moments before. After getting on strike for the second ball, Gayle struck Finch for 6, 6, 4, 6 and 6 to make it 29 off the over.

This took him to 95 off just 27 balls. With the record for quickest T20 century in sight, Gayle played a dot ball and then took a single. Tillakaratne Dilshan scrambled off strike to let Gayle face a free hit from Ashok Dinda, and that was just the invitation Gayle needed to drill the ball out of the stadium. Symonds' record had been smashed by four deliveries and the Bangalore fans rose in unison to applaud an audacious, ballistic century. At that stage, the breakdown of Gayle's special innings was: 11 sixes, eight fours, four singles and seven dot balls.

Dilshan (33) was a mere spectator in a record opening stand of 167 in 13.4 overs. Gayle was not finished, and collected a further five sixes to break the record of most sixes in an innings (16) by one. Three of those came in Murtaza's second over which cost 28, with Gayle reaching 150 in 53 balls. The next record broken was the highest score in T20s, as Gayle surpassed Brendon McCullum's 158 not out set at this same ground in the inaugural match of the IPL in 2008. AB de Villiers played a special cameo of 31 in just eight balls, helping RCB take 52 off the 17th, 18th and 19th overs. Gayle broke Graham Napier's record of most sixes in an innings when he smoked the first ball of the final over long-off, but Dinda did well to curb RCB with the wickets of Saurabh Tiwary and Ravi Rampaul.

Pune had to start their chase with an asking rate of 13.2 and the pressure of trying to scale a mountain told soon enough. Robin Uthappa departed without a run on the board as he top-edged a reverse sweep against Murali Kartik to short third man and the second wicket fell at 28 when Finch drilled Rampaul to Kartik at mid-off. Jaydev Unadkat collected two wickets in his first over as Luke Wright and Yuvraj Singh both top-edged to fielders inside the circle, leaving Pune at 42 for 4.

Steven Smith (41) and Marsh (25) swung their bats in vain as Pune's innings limped to a close. Gayle capped a memorable night with two wickets in the 20th over, breaking out into his Gangnam jig to leave RCB and its legion of fans grinning from ear to ear.

By IBNLive