Gilchrist damages Bangalore's chances

BANGALORE: Adam Gilchrist’s unbeaten 85 off 54 balls, helped by Azhar Mahmood's 61 off 41, stunned Royal Challengers Bangalore, ending the chase of 175 with 11 balls to spare here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.
Kings XI Punjab kept their slim hope alive, and made it difficult for Royal Challengers, who were left fighting Sunrisers Hyderabad for the final playoff place. Sunrisers are level with Royal Challengers, but have a game in hand.
Put in, Royal Challengers needed a huge total on a flat pitch and short outfield, especially given their bowling. Kings XI bowled few loose balls in the first half of the innings, and Gayle and Virat Kohli struggled to come to terms with the pace of the pitch.
After their misfortune, Kings XI lost their way towards the end. Once Gayle and Kohli began hitting. Parvinder Awana, the bowler who had been denied the Gayle wicket earlier, came back to rip Gayle's stump into two in the 19th over. Despite the damage control, Kings XI had been hit hard, and the momentum seemed to have shifted.
Gilchrist kept handing over the strike to Mahmood until it was time for both to go. Then Gilchrist got an outside edge for four. Then a four off the inside half of the bat. The best of Gilchrist came against Muralitharan when he charged at him and drove him back over his head for four. He bettered it by charging at the returning Zaheer Khan and sending him back over the sight screen. It all ended in a blur after that, but his driving and sweeping of Murali for consecutive sixes stood out.
Once again Gilchrist called it as he saw it. He pointed out both the lbw mistakes, admitted that he "scratched around like an old chook" in the first half, and that Mahmood deserved the Man-of-the-Match award that he got.