Gayle storm sweeps away Pune Warriors

Fans were treated to another last-ball thriller in IPL with Saurabh Tiwary hitting a six from the last delivery to take Royal Challengers Bangalore to a 6-wicket win over Pune Warriors here today.

Some phenomenal hitting by Chris Gayle and brilliant batting at the rear by AB de Villiers and Tiwary capped a fantastic chase by Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Chasing a target of 183, RCB's Tiwary (36 no, 23 balls, 1x4, 2x6) smashed Ashish Nehra for a big straight six with three needed off the last ball. Not to forget de Villiers (33 no, 14 balls, 2x4, 3x6) who smashed Nehra for two innovative sixes -- a reverse sweep and a scoop over deep fine leg.

The Men in Red needed 21 runs off the last over and Nehra was handed the ball. Unfortunately, the manu00a0who was one of India's finest bowler at the death, seems to have lost that magic. Nehra who gave away 54 runs in four overs was hit for as many as half a dozen of sixes and could well be his last match in the IPL. Nehra completely undid the good work done by Ashok Dinda who gave away only six runs in the penultimate over.

u00a0The chase was however started by Chris Gayle who hit eight towering sixes enroute his 48-ball 81.

The Gayle show included on brilliant over that saw him knock spinner Rahul Sharma for five consecutive sixes.u00a0

Chris Gayle's innings had seven huge sixes. Pic/AFP

At halfway stage during their chase RCB were 63 for two with Gayle at the crease. Although Gayle hit couple of huge sixes off Ashish Nehra, he wasn't at his dangerous best as he failed to find the gaps. Kohli too was taking time to get into the groove. Credit should be given to Bhuveneshwar Kumar who bowled three tight overs during the front 10.

It was only after Kohli was dismissed by Angelo Mathews that Gayle decided to play his signature game.

Leg-spinner Rahul Sharma bore the brunt as Gayle launched into him hitting five consecutive sixes as 31 runs came off that over and RCB seemed to be back on track.

Gayle raced to 81 off 47 balls as he hit Ashish Nehra to notch up his eighth six but the veteran seamer bowled a perfect delivery in the blockhole that cleaned up Gayle. The Jamaican had scored 81 off 48 balls with four boundaries and eight sixes.

Earlier, local boy Robin Uthappa's belligerent knock of 69 along with useful contributions from Jesse Ryder and Marlon Samuels helped Pune Warriors post a commendable 182 for six.

Uthappa got off to a cracking start adding 63 runs for the first wicket in only seven overs.u00a0The Royals introduced offie Tillakaratne Dilshan in the second over, which went for 13 runs including a six and four.

Ryder started from where he had left off in the last match against CSK, while Uthappa showed why he is so highly rated in this format.

Just when it looked like the Ryder-Uthappa duo would murder the bowling, Harshal Patel provided RCB the breakthrough claiming the Kiwi opener. Ryder went while trying to pull Patel over backward square leg only to be caught by Mayank Agarwal at the boundary.

Uthappa had a reprieve when he tried to sweep left-arm spinner KP Appanna and TV replays showed that ball jumped off his gloves to be caught by wicket-keeper AB de Villiers. The umpire, however, gave him not out and the next ball was dispatched into the deep mid-wicket stand.

The Karnataka lad quickly raced to his fourth IPL half century reverse sweeping Dilshan past short third-man for his second consecutive boundary. His 50 had seven fours and two sixes and came off only 34 balls. The Warriors reached 100 in the 11th over.

RCB responded with two quick wickets in two overs. R Vinay Kumar first picked up an woefully out-of-form Sourav Ganguly whose slash was easily caught at sweeper cover by Mayank Agarwal and in the next over Vettori sent back Uthappa 69 (45 balls 4x9 6x2).

Marlon Samuels (34, 20 balls, 1x4, 2x6) and Steven Smith (16) added 47 runs in only 4.5 overs before couple run-outs saw the back of both players.

Especially Samuels who looked in fine touch and Warriors finished 15 runs short in the end.

RCB made three changes inducting Dilshan, KP Apanna and Harshal Patel in place of Muttiah Muralitharan, Mohammad Kaif and Sreenath Aravind, who all played last game against Rajasthan Royals.

PWI brought in pacer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar replacing orthodox left-arm spinner Murali Kartik.u00a0

Brief Scores:

PWI: 182/6 (R Uthappa 69, M Samuels 34, J Ryder 34, H Patel 1/34)

RCB:186 for 4 (C Gayle 81, S Tiwary 36 no, AB de Villiers 34 no)