PUNE: If Chris Gayle doesn't get you, AB de Villiers will. Pune Warriors realized this the hard way as they crashed to a 17-run defeat, their ninth this season and sixth on the trot, against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Gahunje stadium on Thursday.
The hosts managed to contain the Gayle storm but contrasting half-centuries from opener Saurabh Tiwary and South African AB de Villiers helped RCB post a daunting 187 for three. Tiwary's well-paced 52 at the top compensated for Gayle's cheap dismissal while de Villiers' pyrotechnics towards the end, an unbeaten 50 from 23 balls (6x4, 2x6), decimated the Warriors.
Pune found it difficult to lift themselves after de Villiers' brilliant late assault and ended up with 170/9.
The lone bright spot of the evening for the Warriors was Robin Uthappa's rearguard 75. The Bangalorean's 45-ball innings (5x4, 5x6) and his 63-run partnership with Angelo Mathews (32) gave a glimmer of hope for Warriors but in the end it wasn't enough.
Murali Kartik (2-29) and Vinay Kumar (3-31) continued to impress with the ball, the latter improving his tally to 18 scalps to be second on the leading wicket-takers' list.
For both Tiwary and de Villiers, it was their first half-century of the season. Tiwary, playing only his fifth match of the season, kept the scoreboard ticking after Gayle's fall with two fours and two sixes during his 45-ball knock. Gayle fell for a 21-ball 21. It was an uncharacteristic knock by Gayle, who had massacred the Pune bowling in the first leg with the fastest ton in T20. The left-hander played out 10 dot balls and ran seven singles.
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