Chris Gayle blows a hole in IPL and Twenty20 record books for Bangalore

Chris Gayle unleashed a flood of sixes and boundaries to rack up, in just 66 balls, a record personal score of 175 runs over 20 overs of unabated onslaught against Pune Warriors.

Chris Gayle of Royal Challengers Bangalore in action during IPL 2012. Saurabh Das / AP Photo

Royal Challengers Bangalore 263-5 (20 overs)
Gayle 175 not out, Dilshan 33; 2-5

Pune Warriors 133-9 (20 overs)
S Smith 41; Dinda 2-48

Overcast conditions over the M Chinnaswamy Stadium meant play started, got disrupted by rain and resumed again as Royal Challengers Bangalore hosted the Pune Warriors.

But even the battle-hardened visitors had not anticipated that the rain would be their least of worries as Chris Gayle unleashed a flood of sixes and boundaries to rack up, in just 66 balls, a huge record personal score of 175 runs over 20 overs of unabated onslaught.

In the end, the chase was never meant to be as nobody stepped up for Pune to reply in kind to Gayle's heroics. Pune mustered only 133 for nine, well short of the mammoth target of 264 set by Bangalore.

It did not matter that Pune had won the toss earlier and got the extra bit of advantage of the soft conditions which evaporated into thin air for the bowlers.

To make matters more gloomier for Pune and much to the delight of the Bangalore crowd, AB de Villiers smashed an 8-ball cameo of 31 to keep the fireworks going and put Tillakaratne Dilshan's 33 at just over a run-a-ball in poor light.

Many milestones were surpassed - highest team score, fastest hundred, fastest 150, most sixes by a batsman in an innings, highest individual score.

Gayle's score was the highest in the format beating Brendon McCullum's 158 not out in the first IPL season in 2008, and was on the cards since the moment he crossed Andrew Symonds's fastest 34-ball hundred that stood for nine years. His ton in 30 balls included 11 sixes, eight boundaries, four singles with seven dot balls to boot, yet.

Even an out-of-breath Gayle conceded seconds after trudging back with his sledgehammer bat in the break that this was something even he did not plan for.

"I am lost for words myself," said Gayle, mirroring what the spectators' sentiments.

"It is just one of those days, the ball comes on to the bat and it is a nice wicket to bat. Once the early overs were in, I tried to do my best, stay until the end and complete the job."

And for better measure, he raked in more merry with two wickets of the Pune tailender batsmen to bring up the last over of the innings that formally signalled a close to Pune's nightmare.

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