Rampant Bangalore brush aside listless Chennai by 8 wickets - IPL news
Chris Gayle was once again on fire as Bangalore cemented the first place in Indian Premier League table after their final league game. Chennai are the defending champions and have already qualified for the play offs, and they looked a bit tired and uninterested
in their final league game. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was once again amongst the runs and hit some big shots at the tail end of Chennai innings, but it turned out to be too little too late as Bangalore in the end managed to win comprehensively thanks to some more
fire works from Chris Gayle’s bat.
Daniel Vettori the Bangalore captain who had been out due to an injury was back at the helm and after winning the toss elected to bowl first. His decision looked correct right from the first couple of overs as RCB bowlers started to make the ball talk off
a slow surface. Chennai openers Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay did not find it easy to time the ball in first few overs and runs were not coming at a rapid pace. Hussey was cleaned up by Zaheer Khan for just four runs in the 3rd over. Murali Vijay
also fell in the next over for six runs. Those two had not been making runs in last few games in top order, but middle order has been firing for Chennai. However this time the inform Suresh Raina was also not himself and managed just four runs before being
caught off Zaheer Khan. S Badrinath the right hander who has mad heaps of runs in last few games went for nought and Chennai were 22 for 4. MS Dhoni and W Saha came in and steadied the ship to some degree. However runs were still not coming at a quick rate
and Chennai knew that they needed to lift the run rate.
Saha was dismissed for 22 after adding 42 runs for the 5th wicket with Dhoni. Chennai captain did not get much support after that and took the attack to Bangalore attack on his own. The Indian World Cup winning captain was unbeaten on 70 runs
from 40 balls with 3 fours and six massive sixes. Chennai managed to score 128 for 8 in their 20 overs.
Bangalore were realistically never going to be challenged by that meagre total, but Chennai were not ready to throw in the towel. South African AB de villiers was dismissed for nought in the first over by R Ashwin. Chris Gayle at the other end though was
not ready to hold backand after a sedate couple of overs started to cut lose. Virat Kohli gave him good support batting at number three. Kohli was dismissed for 31 by Albie Morkel. Gayle on the other hand carried on his great form and notched up 75 from 50
balls with four boundaries and 6 massive sixes.
Bangalore got home with two overs and 8 wickets to spare. Gayle was named man of the match for his swashbuckling 75 runs.
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