Gayle punishes Pune Warriors in IPL

BANGLORE:  Chris Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan cracked half centuries as Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Pune Warriors by 35 runs in the Indian Premier League on Friday.

Gayle smashed 57 off 31 balls and Dilshan hit 53 off 44 as Bangalore posted a challenging 3-173 after being put in to bat at Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium.

The hosts managed 9-138, with Robin Uthappa (38) and Anustup Majumdar (31) providing a brief challenge.

Gayle dominated the 80-run opening stand with Dilshan, bludgeoning four sixes in an over from pace bowler Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.

He smashed six sixes and three fours in all, reaching his half-century off only 24 deliveries by the sixth over of the innings.

The West Indies superstar, the leading scorer in the 2011 IPL, tops this season with 572 runs.

He was out, caught at long-on, trying to pull a delivery from Sri Lanka seamer Angelo Mathews straight down the ground.

Dilshan hit a six and six fours before he was run out backing up too far when a straight drive from Saurabh Tiwary was fielded by seamer Alfonso Thomas in his run-up, the bowler running back to whip off the bails.

Tiwary made 36 not out from 30 balls, but prolific South African batsman AB de Villiers did not get to bat much and remained 9 not out off four deliveries.

Pune, without captain Sourav Ganguly after he decided to rest, failed to make a match of it once pace bowler Zaheer Khan removed opener Monish Mishra (4) and No.3 batsman Manish Pandey (0).

Pune slipped further to 3-22, as Australia Test captain Michael Clarke (13) also failed when opening.

Uthappa, Majumdar and stand-in captain Steven Smith (24 not out) held the innings together but wickets fell regularly at the other end.

The win lifted Bangalore into third place in the nine-team league with seven wins, five losses and one no-result.

Pune are already out of reckoning for a place in the four-team play-offs with four wins against 10 losses.