Gayle Storm Blow Sunrisers Challenge

Kings XI Punjab won their final home game at Mohali, to handed Sunrisers Hyderabad their first defeat in VIVO IPL 2018 by 15 runs on Thursday (April 19). Led by Chris Gayle's sixth IPL century, KXIP posted a 194-run target. SRH fell short 15 runs from target despite, Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey's half-century.

This was Gayle's second game for KXIP and he followed up his 63 runs in the previous game with yet another IPL century. He sat out from first two opening game of KXIP.



Ravichandran Ashwin, after winning the toss, decided to bat first. Gayle took his time to find the grove as the ball was doing a bit early on but as soon as he hit first six then there was no stopping of him. He hit eleven sixes and a four in his century. He took on No.1 T20I bowler, Rashid Khan for four sixes in a row 14 over of the innings.

Gayle looked in different shape against SRH. He was running hard and picked right deliveries for those monstrous sixes. He reached to his half-century off 39 balls and rest of the carnage took only 24 more. His partnership (85 off 44 balls)with Karun Nair, took the game away from SRH. Karun Nair made 31 off 21 balls before he caught out by Dhawan of Bhubaneswar Kumar. While other bowlers found difficult to hit the ball in right areas against Gayle, Kumar was the only bowler, who didn't allow Gayle to free his arm against him. He was the pickup bowler for SRH as he conceded only 25 runs in 4 overs and picked a wicket. Rashid Khan had an off day, as Gayle scored 42 off 18 balls he bowled.

While chasing, Shikhar Dhawan retired hurt after Saran's ball hit him on his elbow. It was big blow to SRH's chances to chase down the target. Williamson and Pandey put on a 76-run stand off 56 balls for the 3rd wicket before Williamson got out to Andrew The. He made 54 off 41 balls including 3 fours and 2 sixes. As the asking rate was continuously increasing and it was getting difficult to hit boundaries. Although Pandey tried his best but SRH could only manage 178 for 4 in 20 overs. Pandey remained not out on 57 off 42 balls. Tye was the pickup bowler for KXIP, he picked 2 wickets and conceded only 23 in 4 overs.



It was Gayle's 21st century in T20 and 6th in IPL. His previous five came for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Meanwhile, Chris Gayle went unsold in first two rounds in the auction (earlier in this year). He was picked by KXIP at base price.

Gayle awarded Man Of The Match for his match-winning knock.

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