Opener Chris Gayle struck an unbeaten 49 to complement an impressive display by his bowling colleagues as Royal Challengers Bangalore scored an easy seven-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals in their Pepsi IPL match in Bangalore on Saturday.
RCB captain Virat Kohli sent the opposition in after winning the toss and his bowlers responded brilliantly by dismissing the Royals for just 117 in 19.4 overs on a Chinnaswamy track which appeared to be batting-friendly.
Pacers R P Singh (3/13), R Vinay Kumar (3/18) and Ravi Rampual (2/19) did most of the damage during the Royals innings as the visitors slumped to their lowest total in this IPL season so far.
The home side stuttered for a while in their chase with three wickets falling in quick succession before overhauling the small target easily with 13 balls to spare as they reached 123 for three in 17.5 overs to hand the Royals their second loss in six games.
Gayle ended the match in style with a huge six to remain not out on 49 which he made from 44 balls.
With today's win, which put brakes on the fine run of the Royals in the tournament, the RCB jumped to joint top with Sunrisers Hyderabad with 10 points from seven matches while the Royals remained on eight points from six matches.
Gayle played a sensible innings to anchor RCB to victory after in-form batsmen Virat Kohli (1) and A B de Villiers (7) were out cheaply. He curbed his aggressive instinct and hit just four fours and a six in his knock.
Young Saurabh Tiwary gave an able company to his senior partner with a 29-ball unbeaten 25 as the duo stitched 59 runs from 8.5 overs for the unbroken fourth wicket.
RCB began the chase on a solid note with Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan (25) putting on 53 runs before it was broken in the seventh over. Shane Watson induced an edge to Dilshan's bat for Arun Karthik to take an easy catch behind the wicket. Dilshan's 25 from 22 balls contained five boundaries.
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