In a must win situation The Royal Challengers Bangalore arrived in New Delhi to take on the top-ranked team of IPL 2012. The Delhi Daredevils were not up against the whole team but just one man – Christopher Henry Gayle. And Gayle gave them a tough time hands down with his third IPL century and the first in this season. As a result, RCB remain alive and kicking in the race for the playoffs with a 21-run victory against DD.

Earlier, despite resting their best fast bowler, Morne Morkel, the Daredevils decided to play to their strength and put RCB in to bat. Varun Aaron dismissed Tillakaratne Dilshan in the third over. But after that, there was no respite for the DD bowlers as Gayle and Kohli went on an all-out attack. Together, they put up unbeaten 204 runs in 17.4 overs for the second wicket.

Gayle annihilated every bowler that came his way. His 128 not out came off 62 balls and was laced with 13 sixes and seven fours. During his epic innings, he smacked three sixes in an over on two separate occasions. Irfan Pathan was the victim the first time and the second bowler to suffer this fate was left-arm spinner Pavan Negi. Gayle exerted so much power that towards the end, his shoulders began to cramp because of all the big hitting.

Kohli, who has had a quiet tournament by his standards so far, chose the perfect occasion to strike form. He looked in fine touch, placing and timing the ball with precision and grace. He played some delightful cricketing strokes whenever opportunity presented itself. Kohli (73 off 53 balls) concentrated on timing and placement to pierce the gaps in the field.

Chris Gayle was undoubtedly declared the man of the match for scoring 128 off 62 balls, which was also his first century in IPL 2012.

Pune Warriors will host 57th match of IPL at Sahara Stadium, Pune. This is second time Royal Challengers Bangalore and Pune Warriors India playing against each other in this season.

PWI and RCB have played two matches so far. The first was in IPL 2011, where RCB won by 26 runs, and the second was in the IPL 5th season where RCB won match by 6 wickets.

Chris Gayle is the batsman that every bowler has targeted during this season of the IPL. He is holding the current record of most sixes in IPL5.

Tillakaratne Dilshan proved himself as a destructive opener in this season, His bowling might not have been up to the mark, with him being unable to pick up wickets as required, but his capability remains unquestioned.

Steve Smith is a player whose aim and dedication reflect very clearly, irrespective of the situation his team is in, his batting has not been up to expectation recently and he has been an asset to his team on the fielding side.

Skipper Sourav Ganguly too has to lead from the front, although he is very different batsman as he used to be.

Teams: Pune Warriors: Sourav Ganguly (Capt.), Eklavya Dwivedi, Michael Clarke, Ashok Dinda, Callum Ferguson, Raiphi Gomez, Harpreet Singh, Dheeraj Jadhav, Kamran Khan, Murali Kartik, Harshad Khadiwale, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nathan McCullum, Anustup Majumdar, Mithun Manhas, Angelo Mathews, Mohnish Mishra, Ali Murtaza, Ashish Nehra, Manish Pandey, Wayne Parnell, Sachin Rana, Jesse Ryder, Marlon Samuels, Rahul Sharma, Steven Smith, Tamim Iqbal, Alfonso Thomas, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Robin Uthappa, Shrikant Wagh and Luke Wright.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Daniel Vettori (Capt.), Mayank Agarwal, KP Appanna, Prashanth Parameswaran, Arun Karthik, Raju Bhatkal, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Mohammad Kaif, Abrar Kazi, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Charl Langeveldt, Andrew McDonald, Abhimanyu Mithun, Muttiah Muralitharan, Karun Nair, Dirk Nannes, M Gautam, Ryan Ninan, Asad Pathan, Luke Pomerscback, Harshal Patel, Asad Pathan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rilee Rossouw, Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad, S Thiyagarajan, Saurabh Tiwary, R Vinay Kumar.

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat the Mumbai Indians to move into fourth position in the league standings. Mumbai Indians scored a poor 141, after which followed Chris Gayle’s unbeaten 82 off 59 deliveries powered RCB to a nine-wicket win.

Sachin Tendulkar tried to bring MI back into the contest as he hit Vinay Kumar for three consecutive fours in the sixth over. The master blaster, however, got out at 24 by Harshal Patel, which gave RCB its breakthrough in the ninth over. At this point MI were 41 for 3.

MI’s situation worsened as Dinesh Karthik was caught out by Virat Kohli when he tried to hit Muttiah Muralitharan out of the park in the 16th over. Karthik, nonetheless, was the top-scorer in the MI innings, having scored 44 runs off 39 deliveries, which included three fours and a six.

Gayle broke the shackles. The West Indies batsman smote Ojha for three sixes in the 11th over before hitting Kieron Pollard for a couple of fours and a six in the 13th and 15th overs respectively. He brought up his half-century off just 36 deliveries, and with Virat Kohli giving him steady company, RCB got to their required target of 142 in 18 overs. Gayle remained unbeaten on 82, while Virat Kohli, who hit a six to bring up the winning score, remained not out on 36 (off 25 balls)

Chris Gayle was the man of the match for his wonderful innings of 82* (59 balls; 5×4, 6×6)