Chris Gayle struck a belligerent half-century to guide Kings XI Punjab to a challenging 184 for four against Rajasthan Royals in their opening Indian Premier League match here Monday.
Opening the innings, Gayle started in an uncharacteristic fashion but grew in confidence as the innings progressed. He scored 79 off 47 balls and hit eight boundaries and four sixes in the process.
Besides Gayle, young Sarfaraz Khan (46 not out off 29 balls) also played a good hand.
But Rajasthan's decision to bowl first on a two-paced wicket was bang on target as K L Rahul lasted just four balls before edging an outgoing Dhawal Kulkarni delivery to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, who took a brilliant one-handed catch.
Gayle and Mayank Agarwal (22) then struggled to hit big shots against Kings XI's disciplined bowling as they garnered just 32 runs in the powerplay overs.
The dou finally broke their shackles, hitting Jaydev Unadkat for a four and six to yield 13 runs of the bowler's opening over.
Gayle then opened up his arms again and hit Krishnappa Gowtham for a maximum in the first ball of the ninth over.
But Gowtham broke the 54-run stand between Gayle and Agarwal after the latter was holed out a long-off by Kulkarni.
Brought back into the attack in the 12th over, Unadkat was taken to the cleaners by Gayle as he hit the left-arm pacer for three consecutive fours and then a straight six over the bowler's head to bring up his fifty in 33 balls.
Unadkat's second over, that produced 17 runs, opened the floodgates for Kings XI as Sarfaraz too joined the party and together with Gayle punished the bad deliveries.
After playing cautiously initially, Gayle went on a rampage, stood on his crease and clobbered Ben Stokes (2/48) for two boundaries and six before being holed out at midwicket fence by Rahul Tripathi in the fifth ball of the same over.
Gayle and Sarfaraz added 84 runs for the third wicket and in the process gave Kings XI the much-needed momentum.
After Gayle's dismissal, Sarfaraz took the onus on himself and took Kings XI past the 180-run mark.
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