RCB - KXIP = 85 runs

What better results can be expected from a team which is at one of the highest position in the points table plays a team at equal places counted from the bottom of the same? And that was what the spectators at the Chinnaswamy stadium witnessed yesterday with the Royal Challengers Bangalore piling up 205 runs on the board and the Kings XI Punjab losing the plot at 120 with 85 runs still being needed to at least snatch a tie. A fascinating aspect of the game was the the Kings XI Punjab didn't lose all ten wickets despite the pressure.

There was one man in Chris Gayle who scored 13 runs less than what the entire Kings XI Punjab team could manage in 20 legal overs excluding the extras in just 8.1 overs. There can be nothing said about this great man whose introduction into the IPL is as good as the entry of a hero in a James Bond movie. It was as though a shadow of Brian Lara and Vivian Richards was out there batting for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. This was an innings one of its kind needless to be said. The entire team can be dedicated to Gayle alone.

Having Chris Gayle in the team, the RCB captain can experiment with at least five of his batsmen provided Chris Gayle continues in this form. Looking at the scorecard it is unbelievable that he remaining scores put together comes up to 98 runs with not other batsman daring to cross more than 27 runs. I could just remember a match in which Sehwag scores 80 runs to see the Delhi team through earlier in the tournament. This was a similar match with Gayle replacing Sehwag. As usual, both captains didn't ever experiment with their bowlers with 8 bowlers in the game finishing their quota.

This should not be a cause of worry for the Royal Challengers but a point to think about for the Kings XI Punjab. If one side of the coin is considered, even Gilchrist has a point when nothing could be done as long as Chris Gayle was there batting and the remaining bowlers were enough to contain the rest of the batsmen from the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Eventually, a bunch of players from the Kings XI Punjab that includes Paul Valthaty, Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, Abhishek Nayar and Dinesh Karthik could not score at over 6.0 runs an over which was aided by 5 extras.