Kohli, Gayle blast Bangalore to 181

Chris Gayle began the violence, and Virat Kohli managed to add his own touches to it. The result was that Pune Warriors bled 181 runs in their 20 overs, despite conceding only six runs off the final over. Ninety-one of those runs came in seven overs of mad hitting against Kamran Khan and Jerome Taylor, leaving Pune a tough chase to end their four-match losing streak.

It was the typical IPL innings from Royal Challengers Bangalore: keep out the good bowlers, and go after the weakest link. It did not take them long to spot the weakest link in the Pune attack. Kamran ran in for the third over, slipped in his delivery stride and lay sprawled on the turf. He managed to recover from that fall, but was soon floored once again by a murderous assault from Gayle. Pune kept slipping from the moment Kamran slipped.

Alfonso Thomas and Jerome Taylor had bowled two tight overs, showing the pitch had enough spice in it for the seamers. Kamran's lengths, unfortunately, were straight out of Chris Gayle heaven. He began his spell with a short-of-a-length delivery. Gayle pranced out of his crease and carved through the covers. Kamran went fuller with the third ball, and Gayle launched him over long-off. Kamran promptly dropped short, and Gayle swung him almost onto the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The next one was too full, and Gayle scythed through the off side. Twenty off the over, and the home crowd was dancing in joy.

Two more quiet overs followed before the carnage continued against Kamran. The length did not seem to matter anymore, as Gayle just looked to get behind the line and lash at everything. Two length balls were mowed through the leg side, before a very full delivery outside off was knifed over the point boundary, as Bangalore soared to 57 off the Powerplay.

Rahul Sharma's innocuous legbreaks pulled things back as he zipped a quicker one past Tillakaratne Dilshan's pull, before winning a dodgy lbw appeal against Gayle when he was on 49. Only one boundary came in the next five overs - a six off who else but Kamran - as Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers coiled up for the closing assault. Rahul's first three overs went for 13 as he ensured his lengths weren't too full, and kept varying the pace. His last over, however, was the start of Bangalore's final fling.

Kohli, who had moved to 27 off 26 balls by the end of the 14th over, went berserk thereafter, looting 40 off the last 16 balls he faced. The shot that stood out in his rain of sixes was the swat-flick off the front foot through wide mid-on, with the bottom hand imparting unreal power. He redirected Rahul through the leg-side twice in the 15th over before driving Jesse Ryder on either side of the wicket for elegant fours.

Taylor bowled too full in the 18th over, and Kohli pummelled him for another six over square leg before mis-hitting him for six more over third man. In the meantime, de Villiers thumped Ryder straight for the biggest six of the day. As if that violence wasn't enough, Saurabh Tiwary slugged Taylor into the midwicket stands as Bangalore's total soared out of control. Thomas bowled out of his skin to finish with figures of 2 for 23, but his good work, and Rahul's, was undone by their colleagues.