But poor coordination in running between the wickets cost Gambhir his wicket as from being 87 for 1 at midway stage, KKR were reduced to 125 for five in 15.2 overs, losing four wickets within a span of 29 balls.
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The winning margin was the biggest ever in the IPL since it began in 2008, breaking the previous record of 140 by the Kolkata Knight Riders, notched up in the first match of this season against Bangalore.
Royal Challengers Bangalore bowler Sreenath Aravind took two wickets against Kings XI Punjab in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The top four batsman such as Murali Vijay, Hashim Amla, Wriddhiman Saha and David Miller walked back to the pavilion without disturbing the scoreboard. Their fantastic form has swung the fortunes of Royal Challengers Bangalore, who routed two-time champions KKR by nine wickets. He demolished Punjab’s middle order, leaving no chance for batsman to come anywhere near the target. 30 April against SRH out on 14 runs and on 9 May with KXIP Kohli out after 20 runs.
11 – Virat Kohli has scored 11 scores of 75-plus in T20s this year.
Kohli’s knock took his overall tally to 752 runs and he is easily the highest run-getter of the tournament.
Mesmerised by another display from Kohli, Gayle had no hesitation in calling his skipper a complete cricketer.
Reflecting on his performance, Gayle described himself as a “Universe Boss” and expressed confidence to showcase a much better performance when he comes to bat again. We tried everything but they played better cricket.
Teammate Gayle, who also found form at Eden Gardens with a 31-ball 49, paid credit to the in-form duo. This was the joint second quickest fifty by Kohli in IPL.
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Gayle also compared the partnership of Kohli and De Villiers to a couple of famous DC characters. De Villiers smashed a scintillatingunbeaten 129 off 52 balls with 10 fours and 12 maximums while Kohli, en route to his third hundred in a single edition of IPL, hit a brilliant 109 off 55 balls with the help of five fours and eight sixes.
