The Eden Gardens witness yet another Chris Gayle storm on Saturday night. Thousands, who had turned up in support of the home team Kolkata Knight Riders, were pretty sure that the Royal Challengers Bangalore would lose the match after they were reduced to 119 for five in the 15th over.
But for the visiting team, the only saving grace was that Gayle’s presence in the middle. He gracefully completed his 7,000 runs in T20 cricket while playing his 196th game and showed enough intent.
At the start of the 14th over, RCB needed 61 runs from 36 balls and after Darren Sammy got out, the asking rate was more than 11 runs per over. They needed someone to wield the magical wand and Gayle was ready to do the job for his team. At the end of it, Gayle yet again proved why he is the true millionaire in T20 cricket.
In this format, you don’t expect all your batsmen to fire. Out of five to six main batsmen, only two will need to come good to win you a match. But for RCB, it was only Gayle, who took the responsibility to demolish the KKR attack, which had the likes of Morne Morkel and Sunil Narine.
The second highest scorer of the match was AB de Villiers, the most dangerous batsman in world cricket today. This was one of those matches, where any team would have lost at least eight times out of ten. But Gayle’s relentless hitting changed the complexion of the game.
He struck seven fours and sixes and completely stunned the Eden crowd. By the time the explosive West Indies opener got out, RCB was in total control of the situation and finished the match with six deliveries to spare.
