Chris Gayle hit a belligerent half-century as Kings XI Punjab registered a convincing 14-run win over Rajasthan Royals in a controversial Indian Premier League match on Monday. This was the first match of both the teams this season.
Chris Gayle, the hero of Punjab's win, scored 79 runs from 47 balls in the first innings, but the second innings hero proved to be KL Rahul, who failed to impress with his batting skills as he lasted just four balls before edging an outgoing Dhawal Kulkarni delivery to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, who took a brilliant one-handed catch.
However, Rahul ensured to make up for his poor batting performance by grabbing the catch of this season so far. Pumped-up Rahul thumped his chest and let out a few emotions after he dived full length to grab Steve’s Smith catch airborne with two hands.
That dismissal completely changed the complexion of the match in favour of Kings XI. From there on, it proved to be an uphill task for Rajasthan.
West Indian talisman Chris Gayle became the fastest and only the second overseas cricketer to get to 4000 runs in IPL.
Former Australian vice-captain David Warner was the first overseas cricketer to get to the milestone. He had done it in IPL 2017. Gayle, however beat Warner to become the fastest cricketer to reach 4000 IPL runs. Gayle achieved the feat in 112 innings, whereas Warner had taken an innings more to do the same.