Super Kings hit by whirlwind Gayle

BANGALORE: Chris Gayle smashed an unbeaten 75 as Royal Challengers Bangalore topped the points table with an eight-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.

The West Indies opener hit six sixes in his 50-ball knock as Bangalore surpassed Chennai's total of 128-8 with two overs to spare in their last league match of the Twenty20 tournament.

Gayle, who added 80 for the second wicket with Virat Kohli (31), finished the match when he hit spinner Suresh Raina for 11 runs off the last three balls of the 18th over.

Bangalore (19 points), Chennai (18), Kolkata (16) and Mumbai (16) have already qualified for the play-offs. They are followed by Punjab (14), Rajasthan (13), Deccan (12), Kochi (12), Pune (nine) and Delhi (nine).

Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit six sixes in his explosive 40-ball 70 not out but received little support from the other end, the highest stand of the innings being 42 for the fifth wicket.

Chennai made a poor start after being put in to bat as they lost four wickets for 22 runs in the opening six overs, with left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan dismissing Australian Michael Hussey and Raina in successive overs.

Hussey could make just four runs before inside-edging a Zaheer devliery on to the stumps while Raina was caught by Kohli at point.

New Zealand left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori put more pressure on Chennai when he removed Subramaniam Badrinath and West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo to eventually finish with 2-15 off four overs.

Chennai Super Kings 128-8 in 20 overs (MS Dhoni 70 not out, W. Saha 22; D. Vettori 2-15, Zaheer Khan 2-19, S. Aravind 2-20) lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 129-2 in 18 overs (C. Gayle 75 not out, V. Kohli 31) by eight wickets.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011