… Gayle sets the home side on the path with murderous 81
BANGALORE: Saurabh Tiwary and AB de Villiers smashed 21 runs off Ashish Nehra’s last over as Royal Challengers Bangalore came out of nowhere to steal a six-wicket win over Pune Warriors at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here, last night, after Chris Gayle had set the home side on the path of great haste with a murderous 81. Set a target of 183 by Pune, Bangalore were jolted when Gayle was cleaned up by a Nehra yorker and with 56 needed off 26 balls, the Indian paceman knew the scales had tilted yet again. What followed rivalled the frenzy of Gayle’s assault. Ashok Dinda bowled a great 19th over for just seven, leaving Bangalore 21 to get in the last over.
Nehra restricted Tiwary to a single on the first ball. de Villiers lost his balance second ball attempting a Dil-scoop, and yet managed to get the ball to the boundary. Immediately the South African made amends for his off-kilter shot with two stupendous sixes.
Nehra was stupefied. Four needed off two balls, as the rain came down, but nobody, least of all the batsmen, was in the mood to troop off. de Villiers scampered a single, leaving the home team three runs to get for a memorable last-ball win.
The left-arm paceman charged in, erred on the fuller side and Tiwary – may the Lord bless his brave soul – flat-batted it with all his might over long-on.
What a win for Bangalore, and what a tremendous performance by the man who set it up – Gayle! The West Indian hammered eight sixes – five consecutively off a distraught Rahul Sharma after an unusually subdued start.
He scored just three off his first eight balls, but garnered momentum with a  boundary and a couple of sixes against Nehra early in his knock.
The hulking West Indian reached a crescendo of brutality when a sequence of 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 sought to salvage Bangalore, who were staring down the barrel at 72 for three (the batsmen out Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mayank Agarwal and Virat Kohli) in the 12th over.
Such was Gayle’s influence on the contest that it overshadowed the exploits of Pune after they had elected to bat. Robin Uthappa and Jesse Ryder lived up to their promise of uninhibited aggression at the top of the order.
Uthappa made clear his intent in the second over, slog-sweeping Dilshan for six, and kept the  boundaries flowing as Ryder too got into the act at the other end.
The pair added 63 in seven overs, at which point the chunky New Zealander top-edged and was held at deep square. Ganguly came and left in a hurry, timing a sweet cut straight into the hands of Mayank Agarwal at deep point, but Uthappa continued to get quick runs and reached his half-century in 33 balls with a boundary off Dilshan.
The powerful right-hander was handed a couple of reprieves – a missed run-out by Dilshan and a tough high chance by Apanna at the long-off boundary – but was unable to make the lives count as he was out after adding just eight to his score.
It was time then for Marlon Samuels to make it happen. The West Indian sped to a 20-ball 34, adding 47 in under five overs with Steve Smith, as Pune looked set, momentarily, to breach the 200 mark, but fell well short of the magical mark.