West Indian star batsman Chris Gayle smashed an unbeaten 82 as Royal Challengers Bangalore crushed Mumbai by a big margin of nine wickets with 12 balls to spare in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League here at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.
Chasing 142, Bangalore reached the target in 18 overs losing just one wicket – thanks to an unbeaten 94-run second wicket partnership between Gayle and Virat Kohli.
Kohli, who joined Gayle after the exit of opener Tillekaratne Dilshan (19), hit two sixes and a four in his 25-ball 36 not out.
Gayle struck six sixes and five boundaries in his 59-ball innings.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians were sent into bat by Bangalore captain Kohli and were restricted to 141 for six in the allotted 20 overs.
Their main contributors were Dinesh karthik (44), star batsman Sachin Tenndulkar (24) and Ambati Rayudu (22) while Kieron Pollard (21) and captain Harbhajan Singh (20) remained not out.
For Bangalore, Muttiah Muralitharan, Hrshal Patel and Vinay Kumar claimed two wickets each.
Geo Super, Pakistan’s first sports tv channel showed this match live from Mumbai.
