BANGALORE: West Indies star batsman Chris Gayle smashed eight sixes in his marathon innings of 81 to help Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Pune Warriors by six wickets in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.
Chasing a difficult target of 183, Bangalore completed the victory when Saurabh Tiwary hit a towering six off the final ball of the innings bowled by Ashish Nehra.
Tiwary made an unbeaten 36 off 23 balls with two sixes and AB de Villiers remained not out on 33, scored off 14 balls with three sixes.
However, the victory was founded by Gayle who hammered five consecutive sixes in an over from Rahul Sharma as he made 81 from 48 balls.
Earlier, Pune batting first made 182 for six in the allotted 20 overs after Robin Uthappa top scored with 69 from 45 balls. He struck nine fours and two sixes.
Among others, Jesse Ryder of New Zealand and Marlon Samuels of the West Indies made 34 each while Vinay Kumar for Bangalore took two for 34.
This match was shown live by Geo Super, Pakistan’s first sports tv channel.