Gayle powers Bangalore to third win of the season

Chris Gayle smashed nine sixes and four fours to help Bangalore convincingly beat defending champions Kolkata by eight wickets in the domestic T20 tournament in Bangalore on Thursday.

Chasing a modest 155, Bangalore lost their opener Mayank Agarwal early but Gayle and captain Virat Kohli steadied the ship before attacking the Kolkata bowlers.

The pair first targeted Ryan McLaren, who replaced Brett Lee in the squad. Kohli smashed him for two fours through the leg side before Gayle hit him for two massive sixes near cow corner. Kohli was also unforgiving on anything bowled too straight and dismissed Pradeep Sangwan for two consecutive sixes.

Though Kohli fell for 35, Gayle continued his onslaught by smashing two sixes and a four off the 16th over by Jacques Kallis. He then treated L Balaji, Sangwan and Rajat Bhatia with similar disdain by dismissing them to all corners. Bangalore's talisman took his side home with massive six over long on and ended with a score of 85 from 50 balls.

"You can put it (the boundary-line) where ever you want and I'll take on the challenge," Gayle quipped after the match. "I'm actually happy we won the match. The team effort was wonderful. The bowlers did their job. We lost two early wickets, the captain who was in superb form, but AB and I did the good job."

A resolute display from Pune's openers Aaron Finch and Robin Uthappa helped their side snap a eleven-match losing streak to beat Rajasthan by seven wickets in their round-robin match played in Pune on Thursday.

Finch and Robin Uthappa went about chasing Rajasthan's total clinically by attacking young left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh and S Sreesanth. They smashed Singh for two fours and a six in the third over and Sreesanth for two sixes and a four in the fourth.

Finch, who replaced an injured Marlon Samuels, heralded a complete change in the way Warriors approached the Powerplay. Despite Uthappa's departure, he continued aggressively and ensured his side didn't buckle under pressure like they did in their previous matches.

He struck six fours and three sixes and handed his side the initiative before falling for 64. Following his departure, Yuvraj Singh and captain Angelo Mathews guided the team home.

"It's nice to get our first win on the board. It's been a tough first couple of games. But we've been training hard," Finch said. "It was nice to get the opportunity to get a few runs, but that was set up by Robin by the way he took the game away from them."

"Ross Taylor's catch to get rid of Rahul Dravid was just as important and that turned the momentum there. Ashok Dinda's spell towards the end was also outstanding. We remained calm and executed our skills very well," he said.