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On This Day In 2015: The Royal Challengers Bengaluru great Chris Gayle reached the three-figure mark in just 46 deliveries and recorded his 14th hundred in T20 cricket.
On This Day In IPL 2015: Chris Gayle helped RCB beat Punjab by 138 runs. (Image: PTI file)
On This Day In IPL 2015: In his prime, Chris Gayle was the most imposing figure with the bat in the Indian Premier League and evoked fear in the minds of the opposition. The left-hand batter could pulverise any IPL attack and produced yet another example of his unmatched prowess on this day 10 years ago. Gayle hammered a magnificent 117 in an IPL 2015 league-stage encounter for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Playing against the struggling Punjab Kings at RCB’s den – the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Gayle produced another masterclass in six-hitting during his imperious knock.
The Jamaican stalwart smashed 12 sixes and 7 fours during his 57-ball innings that completely took the stings out of the PBKS attack and snatched the contest away from the opposition.
Chris Gayle reached the three-figure mark in just 46 deliveries and recorded his 14th hundred in T20 cricket.
Gayle’s innings allowed RCB to post a gigantic 226/3 in their 20 overs, including the then-RCB skipper Virat Kohli’s sedate 32 during an opening stand of 119 with his Caribbean partner, before South African legend AB de Villiers joined in the party and smashed 47 off just 24 deliveries with 3 fours and 4 sixes.
But the star of the show was Gayle as his breathtaking innings tilted the scales decisively in RCB’s favour in the first half only. Punjab completely crumbled under the pressure of the asking rate and were bowled out for an embarrassing 88 inside 14 overs.
Pace duo of Mitchell Starc (4/15) and Sreenath Aravind (4/27) bowled fantastic spells and shared eight wickets between them to hand RCB their biggest win in terms of margin of runs.
Gayle became the first overseas player in IPL history to reach 3,000 runs in the league during his knock of 117 and also completed the fastest hundred of the 2015 season.
Notably, it was the second instance in the season where RCB had reached their team 100 inside the first 10 overs of the innings with Gayle providing incredible blitz at the top.
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