Chinnaswamy stadium, Bengaluru was witness to yet another Gayle storm yesterday, as the home team, Royal Challengers Bangalore won their crucial match against the English county Somerset, by 51 runs, to stay in contention for the ICC Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) title. RCB set a target of 207 runs, in a must-win game, for Somerset to win, and restricted the English county to 155 for the loss of six wickets.
Chris Gayle announced his return to form with an 86 off 46 balls (8 sixes and 4 fours).
Somerset was on course at the end of ten overs with seven wickets in hand. Opener Peter Trego, played a cameo innings of 58 in 38 balls (3 sixes and 6 fours), and Craig Kiewwetter too made a small contribution. But the other Somerset batsmen could not resist the
spirited attack of the Royal Challengers and in the end surrendered tamely.
Trego was at the crease till 16 overs but he did not get support after Craig left in the fifth over on 26 in 19 balls (2 sixes and 3 fours).
RCB skipper Daniel Vettori and Sreenath Arvind shared two wickets each, while Dirk Nannes and Raajoo Bhatkal took one wicket each.
For Somerset, Alfonso Thomas and Steven Kirby shared two wickets each.
Ironically, Trego conceded 50 runs in three overs for no wicket.
After losing its first two games against the Warriors in the tournament’s opening tie and then the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), RCB
is still at the bottom of Group B despite grabbing two points from this tie.
RCB can still hope for a semi-final berth if it wins against South Australia Redbacks tomorrow with a better net run-rate (+0.438) than
KKR, which has four points from four games but +0.306 net run-rate.
Somerset came into the match with a lone win over KKR and shared one point with SAB in a rain-hit abandoned tie.
The outcome of Somerset versus Warriors tomorrow will determine who will be the other team in Group B to walk into the other semis.
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