Royal Challengers Bangalore 226 for 3 (Gayle 117, de Villiers 47*) beat Kings XI Punjab 88 (Axar 40*, Starc 4-15, Aravind 4-27) by 138 runs
Chris Gayle's 57-ball 117 propelled Royal Challengers to 226 before S Aravind and Mitchell Starc snuffed out Kings XI Punjab's pursuit inside 14 overs. Save for a belated cameo from Axar Patel, there was flimsy resistance from the visitors as they folded up 138 runs short. The defeat all but ended Kings XI's chances of making the playoffs.
Kings XI sleepwalked through the chase, losing half their side inside the Powerplay, the second-most in any IPL season. Manan Vohra was removed after David Wiese dived full stretch at cover to get his fingers under the ball. Thereafter, Kings XI's batsmen came unstuck, with seven of them bowled.
Aravind, playing his first IPL game in three years, and Starc moved the ball both ways, and exploited the batsmen's lack of feet movement to pick up four wickets each. Kings XI appeared to reel from the after-shocks of Gayle's assault, and they looked in no shape to chase down the target right from the outset.
George Bailey had joked after inserting Royal Challengers that he didn't want to be chasing 250. But Gayle's icy authority, aided by Kings XI's shabby fielding, meant they weren't going to be chasing a lot fewer anyway.
The first over of the match provided little clue of what was to come. Sandeep Sharma went past Gayle's bat thrice and gave away only a run. But Gayle was to make up for it in the remaining 16 overs he would spend at the crease. Mitchell Johnson was driven and clipped for 20 runs - his most expensive over in T20 cricket. Gayle was minimalist with his footwork, smacking anything in his hitting range down the ground. Among the 12 sixes and seven fours though, the standout was the one that was the least brutish: a constricted backfoot punch off Sandeep Sharma that screamed to the long off boundary.
However, he did provide a chance in the third over, but Bailey, running at full tilt from mid off, couldn't latch on to it. Gayle could have been dismissed on 53 as well, when he whipped Axar's first delivery, but Vohra spilled a sitter at deep square leg.
Thereafter it was a case of cruising from one milestone to another. Gayle became the first overseas player to score 3000 runs in the IPL, half of which have come at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. By bringing up his 14th century - the most in T20 cricket - in 46 balls, he also completed the fastest hundred of IPL 2015.
Royal Challengers, who became the first team to score 100 inside ten overs twice this season, more than doubled their tally in the second half. Even as Gayle was dismissed, AB de Villiers brought out his own variety of audacious swipes and reverse ramps to ensure the attack was relentless. By the time they were done, Kings XI were left with scarring memories of everything that had gone wrong for them this season. And the night would only get worse.
Sunrisers Hyderabad 201 for 4 (Morgan 63, Dhawan 54) beat Rajasthan Royals 194 for 7 (Smith 68, Morris 34*) by seven runs
Sunrisers Hyderabad took the call of leaving out both their star overseas fast bowlers Dale Steyn and Trent Boult for the first time this season. They shored up their notoriously thin middle order with the inclusion of Ravi Bopara, and then had their four overseas players bat in the top five. The result was a 200-plus total after being put in. David Warner provided the start, Shikhar Dhawan the middle-overs meat with 54 off 35, and Eoin Morgan the finish with 63 off 28, his fastest IPL innings.
Rajasthan Royals lost Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson within the first four overs. Steven Smith made 68 off 40 but had too much to do with little support. There were late blows from James Faulkner and Sanju Samson, but with 57 needed from three overs, both fell to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Sunrisers seemed to have sealed the game. Chris Morris swung Praveen Kumar for three successive sixes to bring it down to 22 off nine, before the Kumars tightened up again.
Starting strongly has not been an issue for Sunrisers, and Dhawan and Warner provided another solid base as they put on 48 inside five overs. Warner had issues with his back and took treatment in the middle, eventually nicking behind trying to hit a third successive four off Watson.
Sustaining the momentum given by the openers has been Sunrisers' problem area but though Moises Henriques struggled to get going at No. 3, Dhawan kept scoring at a healthy pace. There were his usual punches and pulls, and he also resorted to a few reverse-hits before another attempt resulted in him being bowled by James Faulkner.
Sunrisers were 127 for 3 in the 15th over then, and have often failed to finish strongly from such stable positions. But Morgan was to finally do the job he has been picked for several times this season. He was on 18 off 15 in the 16th over when he suddenly accelerated full throttle. Six of his next eight balls went for either four or six as Morgan sped to his half-century in 23 balls. Targetting the straight boundary mostly, Morgan spoiled Pravin Tambe and Morris' figures. The fast bowler came back with a tight last over but could not prevent Sunrisers from going past 200.
The Sunrisers seamers were disciplined at the start of the chase. Even as batsmen kept falling at one end trying to force their way through lack of pace, Smith continued to keep Royals alive. His shuffling created angles and room the others did not have.
After he missed one off Ravi Bopara in the 15th over, the lower order kept connecting with the boundaries right till the end. Two sixes off the last two balls could have forced a Super Over, but Morris managed a four and a single.
Kolkata Knight Riders 171 for 6 (Yusuf 42, Tahir 2-46) beat Delhi Daredevils 158 for 6 (Iyer 40, Chawla 4-32) by 13 runs
A vital cameo from Yusuf Pathan followed by a last-over onslaught from Johan Botha helped Kolkata Knight Riders post a challenging total on a slow pitch in Kolkata. Their bowlers, led by Piyush Chawla who took a four-wicket haul, kept them one step ahead of Delhi Daredevils to pull off their sixth win in 11 games. Daredevils, on eight points, were left needing to win their remaining three games to have any chance of making it to playoffs.
Trusting the pitch to play the way it eventually did, Knight Riders had included four spinners in their attack, including Sunil Narine. Batting remained difficult through the match, with none of the batsmen being able to make a half-century. That Knight Riders were able to score 171 despite anyone scoring big underscored the importance of partnerships, and impactful innings. Yusuf's was one such, but there were others, too.
Even though Knight Riders had lost Gautam Gambhir in the fifth over, the batsman edging an outswinger from Zaheer Khan to the wicketkeeper, it had been a good Powerplay as 50 runs had come. Robin Uthappa had picked up a couple of boundaries through outside edges and had been dropped once by Yuvraj Singh, but had also found timing to score 29 of those runs.
The arrival of spin, though, slowed things down. Amit Mishra bowled three dots at Uthappa in a tight seventh over that cost him just one run. After three more dots at the batsman in his next, he forced a mistake, Uthappa playing across the line and being trapped lbw. At that stage, Mishra's figures read 2-0-2-1.
Knight Riders sent Piyush Chawla up the order to arrest the slide of momentum, but the move turned counter-productive as the batsman struggled to middle the ball. He did hit a four and a six but his 19-ball 22 spanned a period of 5.5 overs starting from the 10th that saw Daredevils rein in the innings. Manish Pandey perished during that phase, chopping on and giving Yuvraj his first wicket this season.
Still, Knight Riders, on 109 for 4 with five over to go and with a battery of spinners in their line-up, looked set for a challenging total. Contrary to his first spell, Mishra's second announced a swing towards the home team.
Bowling the 16th, Mishra was taken for 10 runs that included a six over long-off by Yusuf. The next over, bowled by Tahir, saw Andre Russell hole out in the deep but also cost Daredevils 16 runs. Pathan continued a measured onslaught on the two spinners and helped Knight Riders cross 150 in the penultimate over before falling for 42, his best score this IPL. Botha, with four consecutive boundaries off Zaheer in the last over, provided the perfect finish.
Daredevils' chase started with a solid opening stand of 63 between the impressive Shreyas Iyer, who scored 40, and his new partner, Manoj Tiwary. But as the two repeatedly struggled for timing, it was clear the following batsmen were going to find it tough. Tiwary succumbed first, to Chawla in the 10th over, after a 28-ball 25. Iyer followed in the next. Then once Chawla removed Kedhar Jadhav and Yuvraj in the 14th over, the writing was on the wall.
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