Gayle blitz takes Bangalore to top
After a hiatus of just one match, the Chris Gayle show was back on air today as he made short work of the paltry Chennai total to blast Bangalore to the top of league standings. On the last day of IPL-4 league phase, Chennai struggled during the first innings due to a disciplined bowling effort by the home team and the chase was just too easy for Gayle and co despite Dhoni’s heroics with the bat. The West Indian showman reclaimed the coveted ‘orange cap’ with a blazing knock of 75 runs.
Bangalore, who could have fallen outside the prized top two if they had lost, lifted their overall game after a dismal show against Punjab to ensure that they finish the league phase as the best team and have the advantage of two bites at the cherry in the play-offs. Chennai position will now depend on the result of the Kolkata, Mumbai match.
Chasing 128, Bangalore chose to open with de Villiers and Gayle but the former was dismissed in the very first over, stumped off an Ashwin carom ball. This however did not deter Gayle from playing his natural game. He clobbered a full-toss from Ashwin over the bowler’s head as the crowd erupted in anticipation of fireworks. In the next over, Bollinger was deposited into the stands a couple of times and the Chennai shoulders began to droop. His partner at the other end, Virat Kohli played some good-looking shots and the match was slipping out of Chennai’s hand very quickly. The duo put on 80 in less than 10 overs before Kohli fell for 31.
With the target in sight, Gayle continued on his merry way and brought up his fifty with a streaky boundary that was bit against the run of play. He finished the proceedings with a boundary and a maximum off Suresh Raina and once again stood out for his team with a dominating performance.
Earlier, a captain’s knock by MS Dhoni ensured that Chennai finish with some sort of a total on a tricky track at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. An initial burst of disciplined bowling by the Bangalore pacers had the visitors in trouble very early. Zaheer got the ball to tail away from the left handed Hussey beating him a couple of times before he got an edge on to the stumps. S Arvind enticed Murli Vijay to play a nothing short outside off-stump, Suresh Raina tried an ugly heave only for the edge to fly down third-man’s throat and S Badrinath tried to break the shackles with a lofted shot over long-off instead found the fielder. Chennai were well and truly struggling at 22 for the loss of four wickets.
The hero of Chennai’s last match, Wriddhiman Saha was joined by his skipper Dhoni to do some damage control. The pair put on 42 runs in little less than eight overs to take the team out of trouble. However, the hopes of a late charge evaporated as they lost quick wickets. Saha fell to the innocuous cutters of Kohli while as, Vettori who returned to captain Bangalore after missing three matches due to injury, trapped Bravo in front to peg back Bangalore. Big hitting Albie Morkel did not do a lot and it was left to Dhoni to lend some health to the stuttering score. The captain cool hit a couple of lusty blows in the last over off Abhimanyu Mithun but that proved to be too late in an innings that all along was a struggle.
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