#3 Gayle goes berserk at Eden, KKR vs RCB at Eden Gardens, 2011
Royal Challengers Bangalore scripted one of their most comprehensive victories against the Kolkata Knight Riders when the sides met at the Eden Gardens in the 2011 edition of the tournament. The Knight Riders, batting first, put up a competitive target of 176 for the visitors as Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan and Kallis all contributed with knocks of 40-odd.
However, as Gayle proved sometime later, the score was just not enough. The 'Universe Boss' was on a rampage that day as he put away everything thrown at him with disdain. The burly West Indian made a mockery of the chase, scoring a 55-ball 102*. Virat Kohli remained not out on 30 as RCB completed a comfortable 9-wicket victory.
A memorable anecdote from the match – At the start of the 18th over, RCB required a mere 6 runs from 8 balls for victory and Gayle was unbeaten on 98*. The bowler, Iqbal Abdullah, delivered a juicy half tracker to Kohli, who by instinct, smashed it for a four to the long-on fence, before realising Gayle was short of his century.
Thereafter, Kohli made it a point to block every ball bowled at him. However, to his shock, Abdullah delivered a wide in the same over. With just 1 more required, Gayle eventually got to the landmark with the winning boundary off the first delivery of the next over.
Chris Gayle: “When he got that boundary, it was a bit scary, I told him ‘listen you have to block every ball.’”
Virat Kohli: “Well, I wanted to give Chris the strike, you don't often get a 100 in Twenty20, so I decided to block everything [after that pulled boundary]. I was disappointed to see Iqbal bowl the wide, but it could have slipped out of his hand as well."
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