Gayle blast sets up massive RCB win

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Chris Gayle blasted a 46-ball 86 to set up the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for a massive 51-run win over Somerset in their Champions League T20 match in Bangalore on Monday.

Full Scoring

Chasing a daunting 207 to win, Somerset made a brisk start with Peter Trego making 58 off only 38 deliveries.

However, Daniel Vettori and Dirk Nannes kept pegging away at the wickets at the other end, and by the time Trego succumbed to Raju Bhatkal, caught in the deep by Vettori, the writing was on the wall for the English team.

Vettori finshed with 2/25 and Sreenath Aravind was even more miserly, conceding only 23 runs for his two wickets.

Earlier, Gayle's onslaught propelled Bangalore to 206 for six, having been asked to bat first.

Tillakaratne Dilshan took the initial responsibility on what started off as a slow and damp wicket and, riding his luck, scored a quick 23 runs off 16 balls before being bowled around his legs.

Virat Kohli joined Gayle and, with the track flattening out, the pair scored with greater ease and brought up the 100 in the 11th over.

Steve Kirby stuck to his guns to first remove Kohli, bowling him with a yorker, and he followed up that success by having Saurabh Tiwary caught at deep mid-wicket.

Though wickets were falling around him, Gayle kept his concentration and continued to attack the bowlers, hitting four boundaries and eight sixes, before Alfonso Thomas had him caught in the deep.

Kirby finished with 2/23, commendable figures in an innings where the run rate exceeded 10.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: TM Dilshan (wk), CH Gayle, MA Agarwal, V Kohli, SS Tiwary, KB Arun Karthik, DL Vettori (capt), RR Bhatkal, J Syed Mohammad, DP Nannes, S Aravind

Somerset: C Kieswetter (wk), PD Trego, RE van der Merwe, JC Hildreth, NRD Compton, JC Buttler, AV Suppiah, GH Dockrell, SP Kirby, AC Thomas (capt), M Kartik

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