Gayle, Kohli blast Bangalore to victory
by Jason Humphries 07 October 2011, 19:41
Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli smashed half-centuries as the Royal Challengers Bangalore beat the New South Wales Blues by six wickets in their Champions League T20 semifinal at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
Full Scoring
Bangalore had been set a daunting 204 for victory after David Warner became the first man to score back-to-back centuries in T20 cricket.
But Gayle, who thumped 92 off a trifling 41 deliveries and Kohli, who romped to 84 not out off 49 balls, helped Bangalore to 204 for four with nine balls of their innings remaining, to set up a meeting with either Somerset or Mumbai in the final in Chennai on Sunday.
Gayle was in devastating form and he hammered eight fours and eight sixes during his knock as he took full advantage of the small boundaries at the stadium and the Blues’ bowlers’ propensity to bowl short deliveries at the tall left-hander.
Gayle, who has signed to play for the Sunfoil Dolphins in South Africa’s domestic T20 competition this season, demonstrated his immense power by clubbing a six measuring a full 112 metres off the bowling of speedster Pat Cummins.
Kohli relied on more orthodox cricket strokes than Gayle but the right-hander was no less effective as he slapped 10 fours and three sixes during his unbeaten knock.
This video is not available in your region
After the early loss of Tillakaratne Dilshan (four), caught at mid-off off a delivery from Cummins, Gayle and Virat Kohli helped themselves to 141 runs for the second wicket off 11 overs before Gayle was trapped leg-before by Cummins.
Gayle departed with Bangalore still needing 42 runs off 37 balls and Cummins struck with his next delivery as he bowled Saurabh Tiwary (0) with a searing yorker.
In his next over Cummins had Mayank Agarwal (seven) caught behind as Bangalore slipped to 172 for four but any hope that New South Wales had of fighting their way back in to the match were dashed as Kohli and Mohammed Kaif (13 not out) saw their team home.
Cummins ended with figures of four for 45 off four overs.
CONSECUTIVE CENTURIES
The result was desperately tough on Warner who followed up his 135 not out against Chennai with 123 not out off 68 deliveries against Bangalore as New South Wales posted 203 for two.
The 24-year-old Warner is not the biggest of men but he hits a cricket ball incredibly hard as he demonstrated by smiting a six, measuring 100 metres, off the bowling of off-spinner Gayle that flew high over deep midwicket.
Warner, in total, hammered six fours and 11 sixes and, after reaching his fifty off a relatively pedestrian 40 deliveries, needed just 22 more balls to bring up three figures.
The left-handed Warner and Daniel Smith took full advantage of a wicket which provided the bowlers with no assistance at all as they scored 146 runs for the second wicket off 14.3 overs.
The powerfully-built Smith was almost as effective as Warner and the right-hander bludgeoned his way to his first T20 fifty before he shuffled across his stumps to be bowled by Aravind after scoring 62 off 42 balls.
The Blues lost Shane Watson (three) early, caught at long-on off a delivery from off-spinner Dilshan with Dilshan turning in a superb bowling performance in the context of the match.
Dilshan captured one for 10 off four overs with the next most economical Bangalore bowler being Daniel Vettori, whose three overs cost 29 runs. The other four bowlers used all conceded over 10 runs to the over.
Teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virat Kohli, Mohammad Kaif, Saurabh Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Daniel Vettori (capt), Raju Bhatkal, Arun Karthik (wk), Sreenath Aravind, Dirk Nannes.
New South Wales: David Warner, Shane Watson, Steven Smith, Moises Henriques, Daniel Smith (wk), Simon Katich (capt), Ben Rohrer, Steve O’Keefe, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Stuart Clark.