IPL 5: Bangalore beat Delhi Daredevils to boost playoff chances
Chris Gayle's smashing ton set up a target of 216 runs which proved too much for Delhi Daredevils despite Ross Taylor's brisk fifty and they lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore by 21 runs.
- Wisden India Staff
- Updated: May 18, 2012 01:31 AM IST
It was one of the most riveting games of IPL 5, as Royal Challengers Bangalore took on Delhi Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Delhi were already in the last four, while Bangalore were not, and big wins were needed for them to nose ahead of the other teams in the fray. As a result, we had a match where 409 runs were scored. Chris Gayle took centre stage, scoring 128 of them, but Delhi's batsmen kept Bangalore on their toes till close to the end, before going down by 21 runs.
If Gayle bats the entire 20 overs of the innings, the audience is likely to be treated to something really special. He was slow to start with, playing out a maiden over off Umesh Yadav early on and scoring just 36 from the first 31 balls he faced. He would go on to score 92 off the next 31, even as, thousands of miles away, West Indies ended the first day of their first Test against England on 243 for nine.
But after the sedate start, Pawan Negi appeared on Gayle's radar as the man to thrash. It was the twelfth over of the Bangalore innings. Gayle had hit just two sixes till that point. From there on, 11 more sixes flowed from Gayle's bat, three of them coming off successive deliveries in the sixteenth over, again bowled by Negi. The century - the third of his IPL career - was just round the corner, and when he brought it up, it had taken only 53 balls.
Kohli wasn't doing too badly either, and on another day, his might have been the innings that merited rave reviews. Kohli scored at a strike-rate close to 140, ending the innings unbeaten on 73. But with the incredible Gayle smashing 128 not out, his was only a supporting role.
Chasing 216 was always going to be an uphill, almost impossible, task, one made tougher with Virender Sehwag absent due to ill-health. But Delhi found an unlikely candidate - out-of-form Ross Taylor - to put his hand up and make the evening worthwhile for the home fans. In the mad scramble to stay abreast of the asking rate and preserve wickets, Taylor hit a 26-ball 55 before becoming the sixth Delhi batsman to fall.
They didn't give up though. Andre Russell smashed three sixes in a 15-ball 31 to keep the surge on track. Ultimately though, 216 was too tall a peak to climb. Russell's blitz took them up to 194 for nine, but Gayle's knock remained the difference between the two sides. Bangalore, though, need to win their final game in Hyderabad to seal a place in the last four.