All over in one over

Ever since Chris Gayle touched down on Indian soil, following the fued with his home cricket board and signing with the Royal Challengers Bangalore as a last-minute option, the big question on every single bowler’s mind has been: ‘How do we keep the former West Indian skipper quiet?’ None of them, however, could come up with a reasonable answer in the first four matches that he competed in, as the Jamaican blasted two centuries, amassing an outrageous 284 runs. And on Sunday, it was Prasanth Parameswaran’s turn. 

In one unprecedented over that yielded 37 runs, Gayle subjected the once net bowler — who took a man of the match award on his debut six days ago — to a rather cruel reality check while also diminishing Kochi Tuskers Kerala’s hopes of making the play-off stage in their maiden IPL season. Of the 16 balls that he lasted, Gayle scored 44 runs, but it was the third over the game that fans are going to remember for a long time. 


Gayle pulverised a record figure of above six runs a ball — 6.16 to be precise — in that over of the chase, which included four sixes and three boundaries, with Parameswaran making the mistake of bowling a no-ball as well. In pursuit of a modest target of 126, Gayle cleared the point region for his second six of the chase, first of the Parameswaran over. The second ball, a slow inswinger, was butchered over the same region. Unfortunately for Parameswaran though he had over-stepped by a good distance. A no-ball hasn’t cost a bowler, at least in the IPL, as much as it did the left-arm seamer. 

The extra ball was thwacked towards short mid-wicket for four, before Gayle cleared a packed five-man offside field over mid-off for another carpet-hugging boundary. Gayle punched the next two over covers and straight over the bowler for two more sixes — number 25 and 26 in this tournament. 

One has to give Parameswaran credit for having the will and courage to run in one more time, but even an inside edge past Brendon McCullum ran away to the boundary. 37 runs in one over, and Kochi, to state the obvious, never recovered from that onslaught. 

When Gayle was dismissed in the fourth over, RCB’s score was 67/1 in 3.5 overs. The chase didn’t last much longer, and opener Tillakaratne Dilshan, who scored his first fifty since moving from the Delhi Daredevils, and the usual suspect Virat Kohli wrapped up the game in 13.1 overs, winning by a nine wickets. 

Bangalore, who switched their de rigueur bright crimson and gold costume with an equally bright green uniform today, won their fifth match in a row — as many games as Gayle has been involved with the franchise in — and steadily proved why they are considered the biggest threat to the Mumbai Indians this season. 

Earlier having won the toss, KTK skipper Mahela Jayawardene chose to bat, but a fantastic bowling effort by every Bangalore bowler pegged them back. Zaheer Khan was inspirational with 1/26, Sreenath Aravind was exceptional with figures of 2/20. Bangalore skipper Daniel Vettori and Abhimanyu Mithun scalped three wickets between them, while Dilshan was the only bowler to go wicketless. Although Dilshan made up for it with his unbeaten 52, the day belonged to his opening partner.