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Gayle blows Kolkata away

Johannesburg - A Chris Gayle inspired Royal Challengers Bangalore crushed the Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets, with 15 balls to spare, in their Indian Premier League T20 clash at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Thursday.

Set a target of 155 to win in 20 overs, after Kolkata had scored 154 for eight, the Royal Challengers ended on 158 for two, thanks to Gayle who scored an unbeaten 85 of only 50 balls with four fours and nine long-distance sixes.

According to the supersport.com website, Gayle played the near perfect T20 innings, sharing in two solid partnerships which set up the victory for Bangalore.

Full scorecard

VIDEO: Bangalore v Kolkata, highlights

The hosts lost Mayank Agarwal (six) as early as the third over, caught behind by Manvinder Bisla, giving Ryan McLaren his first IPL wicket. But Gayle and his captain, Virat Kohli (35), steadied the ship with a second-wicket partnership of 63 off 41 deliveries.

The partnership started off slowly, thanks to some tight bowling by McLaren and Jacques Kallis, but increased the tempo when it was needed.

When Kohli was dismissed by Lakshmipathy Balaji in the tenth over, the hosts were on 75 and looking odds on favourites to reach their target. AB de Villiers played second fiddle to Gayle, scoring an undefeated 22 off 22 deliveries in an unbroken stand of 83 for the third wicket.

The only bowler to hold his head high was Sunil Narine, the off-break bowler conceding just 17 runs in his four overs. Kallis had conceded just 12 runs in his first three overs, which included a maiden, but Gayle dismantled his figures, taking 18 runs off his last over.

McLaren was also smashed in his third over, conceding 22 runs after claiming one wicket for eight runs in his first two overs.

Earlier, Gautam Gambhir top scored for Kolkata with 59 off 46 balls with seven boundaries and a six, after the visitors had been sent in to bat. Yusuf Pathan started like a house on fire, striking three fours off his first three balls, but landed up giving his wicket away for 27 off 17 balls.

Manoj Tiwary scored 23 off 16 balls but the visitors lost wickets at regular intervals which stifled their cause in setting a big enough total.

RP Singh claimed three wickets in his final two overs to end with figures of 4-0-27-3 while Moises Henriques (2-24) and R Vinay Kumar (2-36) combined well in support.

Gambhir had a talking to by the umpires during the Bangalore innings as he and Virat Kohli had a spat in the middle after Kohli was dismissed, with the two having to be separated by the other players.

This victory moves Bangalore to the top of the table with six points from four matches while the Knight Riders will need to bounce back after suffering their second consecutive defeat, which leaves them on two points from three matches. 
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