On This Day in 2011 - Gayle and Dilshan destroy Kochi Tuskers Kerala

The arrival of Chris Gayle five games through the 2011 season had transformed the fortunes of the Royal Challengers Bangalore. A stuttering campaign suddenly had caught a breath of fresh air. The team which had only one win from the first five had now won the next four on the trot. The Chinnaswamy stadium, which had witnessed a Gayle storm blowing away the KXIP a couple of days ago, had turned green on a Sunday evening, as RCB took on Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

On a rare occurrence at the Chinnaswamy, the Kochi Tuskers decided to set a total on a sluggish surface. The Kochi openers, Michael Klinger and Brendon McCullum got the team off to a good start with 41 runs scored in the first five overs. But, a clever variation in length and pace from the RCB skipper Daniel Vettori saw the back of his Kiwi teammate, McCullum, in the final over of the powerplay.

On a pitch which did not allow free stroke-play, the middle overs saw Kochi batsmen finding it difficult to score freely. Having got off to a quick start with 64 on the board after 8 overs, Kochi surrendered the control of the game as three wickets fell in as many overs, and only yielded 11 runs. Things got worse for the Tuskers, as Brad Hodge, their veteran middle-order batsman was dismissed by a brilliant one-handed catch by Zaheer Khan at short fine-leg. Kochi never recovered from the flurry of wickets. Not a single boundary was conceded by the efficient RCB bowling unit in the last 4 overs and Kochi limped to 125/9 in their twenty overs.

Chris Gayle destroyed Kochi’s hopes, scoring 37 runs of a single over by Prasanth Parameswaran

Chasing a modest 126, Chris Gayle took off from where he left against KXIP in the previous game. An effortless straight hit over long-off signalled Gayle’s intent to not let the low required rate dictate his approach. Dilshan got in on the act as he took on the off-spinner Ramesh Powar and scored 20 runs from the second over of the innings. The RCB openers were looking to make quick work of a smallish total. 

The runs required were already below a hundred, and then came the cake and the cherry on top. Chris Gayle was up against the left-arm seamer from Kerala, Prasanth Parameswaran, who would have been wary of the destruction the Jamaican is capable of, but would not have envisaged what was to follow. A sliced six off the first ball over point, a no-ball which was deposited which endured the same treatment, three more boundaries off the next five balls of the over and two sixers sandwiched in-between. If Kerala had harboured any hopes of coming back into the game with a few wickets in the powerplay, Chris Gayle made sure to put them all to rest. The over had gone for more than 6 runs a ball - 37. The chase was all but over with more than half the target knocked off by the third over of the innings.

Gayle was dismissed by a Malinga-Esque yorker by Vinay Kumar, but the destruction Gayle left in his wake had ensured the floodlights would not be needed on an evening which promoted a cause for the environment. With the required rate not even a concern, Kohli and Dilshan went about their jobs diligently. The situation demanded sensibility, and the two right-handers collected runs at ease without any unnecessary risks. The duo put on a 58 run stand and remained unbeaten, Dilshan getting to his half-century in 30 balls. RCB had chased down the target with utmost ease with 41 balls and 9 wickets to spare. Not only had they won their fifth game in a row, but with the crushing of the hapless Kerala franchise, they had done their net run rate a world of good.