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The Royal Challengers Bangalore chased down a target of 172 without breaking a sweat on an evening of some big hitting from West Indian powerhouse Chris Gayle. Having scored an aggressive 171/5 batting first, Kolkata was never in the match as Gayle on his return to his former stomping ground made mince meat of a mediocre pace attack. Tillakaratne Dilshan and later Virat Kohli had the best seats in the house to witness the destruction unleashed as Gayle smashed 10 fours and 7 sixes to steer his side to an easy win. RCB, who looked like they had undergone a body language overhaul, are now back in the reckoning as contenders for the IPL throne this season.

The top and bottom teams of the Indian Premier League clashed today at Eden Gardens, playing on a track that Daniel Vettori believed would get better for batting as the game went on. The RCB skipper won the toss and unsurprisingly put the Knight Riders into bat. KKR brought Brad Haddin into their squad for his first game of the season in place of Manvinder Bisla and compensated for it by picking young left-arm seamer Jaidev Unadkat inplace of Brett Lee. Chris Gayle, Syed Mohammad and Karnataka paceman Sreenath Aravind made their IPL 2011 debuts for the RCB in a considerably changed side

Zaheer Khan and Aravind were hammered in the first two overs by Jacques Kallis and Brad Haddin prompting captain Vettori to take the pace off the ball by bringing Syed on. Two low scoring overs brought Syed the wicket of a frustrated Haddin for 18 from 11 balls. Having helped KKR reach their 50 in 6 overs, captain Gautam Gambhir and Kallis continued their good partnership this season playing some lovely strokes around the stadium.

Kallis scored a useful 40 off 42 balls before driving Vettori uppishlty to Gayle while trying to up the ante. Gambhir who has been in great form with the bat this season was joined by Yusuf Pathan with score at 101/2 after 13 overs. They scored 34 runs in three overs before Gambhir was out to Aravind after a solid 48 off just 38 balls. Pathan continued to tear the bowling apart, apparently incensed by Gambhir’s departure taking the score to 154 at the end of 18.

Zaheer and Aravind bowled two good overs as the latter picked up the wicket of Pathan in the last over to make sure Kolkata did not get beyond 171. Syed Mohammad was the pick of the bowlers as he finished with figures of 1/20 in his 4. Aravind bowled an expensive first spell but came back well to take 2/37 in 3. Vettori finished an impressive 1/28 in his four.

The controversy ridden Chris Gayle, who has left his national side in the lurch to play in the IPL, decided to let his bat do the talking for him as he partnered Tillakaratne Dilshan to lend RCB their best beginning this tournament. They took apart a KKR bowling attack that looked desperately in need of Brett Lee and even the slower bowlers brought on from the 5^th over on were not of much help. The duo led RCB to 57/0 after 6, but that was just the beginning.

Having reached his 50 in 28 balls with some explosive hitting, he continued in the same vein taking RCB to their century mark in just 10.2 overs. Lakshmipathy Balaji brought back in the 13^th over, finally removed Dilshan, but by then it was clear that it was too little too late. Dilshan departed for a well made 38 off 31 balls only to be replaced by an aggressive Virat Kohli who took forth the demolition in the same scale as Gayle. By the fourteenth over, with perhaps the net run rate in mind, they began to finish off the match.

Seven Kolkata bowlers who bowled, all had a torrid outing with Balaji finishing as the only successful one with 1/43 in four. Iqbal Abdulla was inexplicably not bowled until the 16th over when it was way too late. Considering he has been their strike bowler, Gambhir's decision will be met with some frowns. Gayle wrapped up proceedings on the first ball of the nineteenth over, hammering a four over cover to complete his century in just 55 balls! Kohli finished unbeaten on 30 off 23 as the RCB celebrated its second win this tournament. They could have done their net run rate some more good finishing the game an over earlier, but Kohli opted to allow Gayle to get to a century instead. Having lost a game due to the rain, this decision is unlikely to come back to haunt RCB as they are on an odd number of points while most other teams will end with multiples of 2.

The points table shuffled around a bit after this match as Kolkata slipped to number two, replaced by the dangerous Mumbai Indians. The Royal Challengers launched themselves to the 5^th position riding on this emphatic win. Banglore displayed a controlled performance on the field and then an immaculate one with bat to score a resounding victory in what is so far the most exciting edition of the IPL. KKR will have some introspection to do after the defeat and Gambhir will have to do some hard thinking about he will use his bowlers in the rest of the tournament.

Teams:

KKR: JH Kallis, BJ Haddin (wk), G Gambhir, MK Tiwary, EJG Morgan, YK Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, R Bhatia, Iqbal Abdulla, JD Unadkat, L Balaji

RCB: CH Gayle, TM Dilshan, V Kohli, AB de Villiers (wk), SS Tiwary, CA Pujara, Z Khan, AUK Pathan, DL Vettori (c), S Aravind, J Syed Mohammad

Mini Scorecard:

Kolkata Knight Riders 171/5 (20 overs, 8.55rpo)
Gautam Gambhir 48 (38) S Aravind 2-37
Yusuf Pathan 46 (24) JS Mohammad 1-20

Royal Challengers Bangalore 175/1 (181.1 overs, 9.63rpo)
Chris Gayle 102* (55) L Balaji 1-43
Tillakaratne Dilshan 38 (31)

Bangalore win by 9 wickets