Rampant Bangalore brush aside listless Chennai by a 8 wicket win - IPL news
Chris Gayle was once again on fire as Bangalore cemented first place in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 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 proved to be correct right from the first couple of overs as the 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 the 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 third over.
Murali Vijay also fell in the next over for six runs. Those two had not been making runs in the last few games in the top order but the 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 made heaps of runs in the 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 fifth wicket with Dhoni. The Chennai captain did not get much support after that and took the attack to Bangalore 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 the 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 back and 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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