Chris Gayle hit an unbeaten century as Bangalore Royal Challengers thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders in their Indian Premier League encounter in Kolkata on Friday.
Gayle announced his arrival to the competition by blasting seven sixes and 10 fours en route to a 55-ball 102 against his former franchise as Bangalore chased down Kolkata’s 171 with 11 balls to spare.
Earlier, batting first after losing the toss, Jacques Kallis, along with Brad Haddin, gave Kolkata a breezy start by hammering three boundaries off Zaheer Khan’s first over as 50 came off 36 balls.
By then Syed Mohammed had sent back Haddin (18), but Kallis and Gambhir added 50 off 8.3 overs and saw the home team cruise to 100 off just 78 balls.
Daniel Vettori then sent back Kallis, who had slowed down after his initial blitz and took 42 balls for his 40 which included just four boundaries.
Yusuf Pathan joined Gambhir and the duo added 37 off 4.2 overs, before the latter was dismissed two runs short of his 50 by Sreenath Aravind, who was hit for two fours and a six by Pathan in the last three balls of the same over.
The big-hitter was caught brilliantly by Virat Kohli off Arvind, but his 24-ball 46 helped the team to finish with 171 for five although Eoin Morgan (six) was run out in the last ball of the innings.
Openers Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan kept Bangalore in the hunt with an aggressive start blasting 50 off just 5.3 overs.
Gayle then smashed two sixes off Shakib Al Hasan and a six and a couple of boundaries off Pathan to bring up his half-century off just 29 balls.
Two more sixes off Manoj Tiwary saw Gayle put his team past 100 by the 11th over and meted out the same treatment to Manoj Bhatia, who gave a way 17 runs.
Just when Bangalore looked like finishing things early Lakshmipathy Balaji rattled the off-stump of Dilshan (38 off 31 balls), but the 123-run opening stand put them in command.
The only interest left in the match was if Gayle could bring up his century, which the big Jamaican did with the winning shot as Kohli remained unbeaten on 30.