Royal Challengers Bangalore put on a majestic display against the Kings XI Punjab at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Wednesday thanks to an epic century from Chris Gayle. It was his fifth IPL century and his efforts helped Royal Challengers Bangalore reach the third spot in the points table.
Speaking to iplt20.com, Gayle, who was rested for the previous game against Chennai Super Kings, said he was feeling really fresh following the break. The left-hander shared a 119-run stand with Virat Kohli and a 71-run stand with AB de Villiers and it was his partnership with de Villiers that propelled Royal Challengers Bangalore.
"Once AB comes in, you tell him to give himself a chance, bat a few balls and we can take it from there. But today the game was already set up, so batsmen could come and bat freely straight away. AB is one of the best batsmen in the world, if not the best. It is amazing to bat with him. It was a good wicket to bat on. And although I scored a century, I have to give a lot of credit to the Kings XI Punjab bowlers. After the 14th over, those guys bowled some really brilliant yorkers and pegged things back to a great extent. We could have easily got 250 from where we were if it wasn't for some really good bowling by them," he said.
Gayle started cautiously in the first over bowled by Sandeep Sharma by scoring just one run. He opened up in the second over bowled by Mitchell Johnson by smashing 20 runs and followed it up by smashing 22 runs off Sandeep.
He said that he had a plan to combat Sandeep. "Sandeep got the better of me the last year. He bowls really well upfront, getting the ball to swing. I just wanted to get past his first over. I started to open up in the second over and once I got my first boundary the momentum was built and things started to go in full flow," he said.
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