Kings XI Punjab are at a crossroads in their 2015 IPL campaign and after enduring seven defeats in their first nine matches, only a miracle can turn things around for the bottom-placed side. Against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday, they would hope for better fortunes against a side that has arrested its own slide to stay in contention for a place in the Playoffs.A hiccup against Chennai Super Kings snapped the healthy momentum Royal Challengers Bangalore had gathered, but their recent form is a sign of positivity. In the sapping heat of Chennai, Royal Challengers Bangalore fluffed their opportunity to chase down a modest total but back in the familiar surroundings of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and against a team that is on a four-game losing streak, Virat Kohli's men would be confident of taking one step closer to a last-four finish.Subject to weather conditions - thunderstorms are forecast for Wednesday evening - the stadium produces high-scoring contests and this should be no different. The last game was reduced to a 10-over contest but it didn't stop both sides from scoring 100-plus totals with the team batting second winning it.
Maxwell to continue. And Chris Gayle to continue hitting his sixers. Two huge sixes over the bowlers head to bring up RCB's hundred in the 10th over. 15 off the over. RCB - 104/0
Karanveer Singh is brought on, but there's no stopping Gayle. Gayle and de Villiers get six off the first four deliveries, but then Gayle steps up and smashes the leggie for two big sixes straight down the wicket to give his side another big over.
GAYLE SCORES HIS FIFTH HUNDRED FOR RCB! He chips Mitchell Johnson wide of fine-leg to bring up another stunning hundred, and he jumps out a gives his best impression of the Cristiano Ronaldo celebration to boot. RCB - 148/1.
Well, well. AB de Villiers is starting to weave his magic, too. He hangs back and pulls Karanveer Singh for a six over mid-wicket off the second ball and then follows that up with two stunning sixes over the cover region. Gayle puts his stamp on the over, too, with a four on the leg-side. That's only his 6th four of the innings. He has 11 sixes. This.man.is.insane! That's 23 off the over.
The full repertoire of ABD's shots are being unleashed. A reverse-scoop off a high full toss gets him four more, but RCB can only get four more singles off the over. Good comeback from Anureet Singh. Eight off the over. RCB - 178/1.
Mitchell Starc is back into the attack as RCB look to close things off. And yep, he gets another wicket to his name. Wait, not one but two in the over. He has Johnson and Anureet Singh out bowled in the same over. RCB are racing towards a huge win. KXIP - 51/8.
RCB win by a massive 138-run margin. This is the lowest score by any IPL team this season. This is the second heaviest defeat in terms of runs in IPL history.
Earlier in the day, Gayle's blitzkrieg just floored KXIP's bowlers into submission. During Gayle's blizzard, he cracked as many as seven sixes. In fact, he walloped Mitchell Johnson for 20 runs in a single over. Gayle reached his 14th T20 hundred and his fifth ton for RCB in a mere 46 balls. During his knock, he also reached 3,000 runs in the IPL. For the visitors, Anureet Singh bowled a fine spell. However, they would rue the fact that Gayle was dropped twice.
After Chris Gayle smashed KXIP's attack to shreds, their batsmen put up a listless show to slump towards a demoralising defeat. It turned out to be the second heaviest defeat in the history of the IPL in terms of runs. It was Sreenath Aravind, in his comeback game, who bowled with zest and vigour to snaffle four wickets. He even took the prized scalps of Glenn Maxwell and David Miller. Mitchell Starc too picked up four wickets.