A Gayle force blew over Bangalore last night that left thousands of cricket crazy fans celebrating as the Royal Challengers Bangalore booked a place in the finals of the 2011 Nokia Champions league T20series in India. Chasing the New South Wales Blues' total of 203, the home team closed out victory with nine balls and six wickets to spare, to spark off wild celebrations as their cricketers will now go to Chennai for the finals on Sunday. They will await their opponents who will come from the Mumbai Indians versus Somerset clash today. Gayle cracked an imperious 92, to cancel the magnificent 123 not out from NSW opener David Warner-his second century in successive innings.
Before the match, Gayle and Warner, soon to be opening partners for New South Wales in the Big Bash League, were seen chatting with each other. When walking back, Warner took a look at Gayle's bat. He held it sideways, and his jaw dropped looking at the thickness of the leading edge. They both had a laugh, and went their separate ways for the night. Gayle laughed the final laugh, though, as his 92 off 41 in company with Kohli's unbeaten 84 off 49 outdid Warner's extraordinary 123 off 68 and Daniel Smith's 62 off 42. That leading edge was never hit on a night when clean hits tested the size of the stadium, and the half-hits managed to clear the short boundaries.
Warner and Gayle dented the roof once each, but Gayle-symbolically-managed to send one of them out of the stadium. Earlier, Warner held sway as he scored 81 off the last 33 balls he faced as NSW looted 131 from the last 10.1 overs. Of the 11 sixes that Warner hit, two stood out: the regulation slog over midwicket that hit the roof, the switch-slog off the medium-pace of Raju Bhatkal, which cleared wide long-off with ease. However, he was to play second fiddle to a West Indian giant in the night.
SCOREBOARD
NSW vs Bangalore
NSW inns
S Watson c Kaif b Dilshan 3
D Warner not out 123
D Smith b Aravind 62
B Rohrer not out 7
Extras b1, lb2, w5 8
Total for 2 wkts (20 ovs).............203
Fall of wkts: 17, 163.
Bowling: T Dilshan 4-0-10-1, D Nannes 4-0-51-0, D Vettori 3-0-29-0, C Gayle 1-0-14-0, S Aravind 4-0-55-1, R Bhatkal 4-0-41-0.
RCB inns
C Gayle lbw Cummins 92
T Dilshan c Henriques b Cummins 4
V Kohli not out 84
S Tiwary b Cummins 0
M Agarwal c Smith b Cummins 7
M Kaif not out 13
Extras w3, nb1 4
Total for 4 wkts (18.3) 204
Fall of wkts: 21, 162, 162, 172.
Bowling: S Clark 4-0-31-0, M Starc 3-0-41-0, P Cummins 4-0-45-4, S O'Keefe 2-0-26-0, M Henriques 2-0-24-0, S Smith 2.3-0-24-0, D Warner 1-0-13-0.
Result: RCB won by 6 wkts.
Man-of-match: V Kohli. (RCB)
