Gayle's century in IPL is a special one

Chris Gayle has arrived. He smashed his way to his first IPL century, the second-fastest in this edition of the competition, and was the architect of Bangalore's victory over his former team, Kolkata. Gayle formed powerful partnerships with Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virat Kohli as Bangalore were untroubled in their chase of 172, winning by nine wickets.

The pitch was proving to be tricky for the quicks and Kolkata opted to start with a spinner after having posted 171. Yusuf Pathan, who was battling a knee niggle, opened the bowling. After three good deliveries, Yusuf strayed on the leg stump and Dilshan cashed in with four through square leg. With that, the flood gates were opened.

In the fourth over, Gayle had scored just three singles - while Dilshan had notched up 19 - when he was offered a full toss. He drove it down past the non-striker for the first of his 17 boundaries. It didn't matter what Bangalore tried after that. Jaidev Unadkat was dispatched with disdain as Gayle went down on one knee, smacking him for six over long-on. Shakib Al Hasan was tossed around like a limp ragdoll, slogged over midwicket and mowed over deep square. Yusuf was smoked through the covers. Gayle even showed a touch of deftness, playing one fine to the third man boundary.

It didn't matter who was given the ball, even though spin proved difficult to get away during the Kolkata innings. Manoj Tiwary was slapped over long-on and even mishit for six. Medium pacer Rajat Bhatia was hit for 17 runs in his second over, 16 off Gayle's bat. At the end of 12 overs, Bangalore were cruising on 123 for 1 when Dilshan was bowled by L Balaji, who controlled the swing admirably.

The Gayle force blew on though. Together with Kohli, he brought the required run rate down to less than a run a ball. Kohli was given some room to express himself too, taking advantage of full balls offered by Balaji and showing off his wrist work against Bhatia. Kohli almost had too much fun and denied Gayle a century with a boundary off the first ball of the 18th over, that left Bangalore with just two to win. He blocked out the rest of the over to make amends.

Even a wide from Iqbal Abdulla couldn't stop Gayle, who ended the innings with a smashing shot through the covers, winning the match with 11 balls to spare. Gayle, who was picked up by Bangalore as a replacement for the injured Dirk Nannes, wore a jersey with 333 - his highest Test score - on the back and made light work of a total that Kolkata should have been able to defend.

Paul Valthaty gives Punjab comprehensive win

Don't shake Paul Valthaty's hand any time soon. You might just turn to gold. He followed up his century in Kings XI Punjab's previous game by surprising everybody with his split-finger slower balls, in the Dilhara Fernando mould, taking 4 for 29, the best figures by any Punjab bowler, and then - with a 47-ball 75 - made a mockery of a target he had himself kept down to 165.

The turnaround for Punjab began with a good piece of fielding, and then a fortuitous lob off what should have been a leg-side wide. Until then Kumar Sangakkara and Shikhar Dhawan had put up a fine display of driving in a 75-run second-wicket stand, Deccan's best for any wicket this season, but both fell within three runs to send the hosts into rebuild mode for the best part of the second half of their innings.

Deccan Chargers had reached 88 for 1 in the 11th over, and the set batsmen were just looking to open up further when a diving Shaun Marsh at extra cover made sure Sangakkara stayed on strike. Sangakkara slog-swept the next ball to deep midwicket where Ryan McLaren took a good, low catch. In the next over, Valthaty's slower ball went wrong, and was going way down the leg side until Dhawan decided to try and clear short fine leg. Instead, the ball landed in the fielder's lap. Two starts had been wasted, Deccan had to become circumspect.

Valthaty's next over featured two similar slower balls. Bharat Chipli escaped long-off off the first, but the other was picked up near long-on. Daniel Christian's 30 off 14 threatened a major assault towards the end, but Valthaty once again pulled Deccan back with two wickets in two balls: Christian was bowled attempting a slog, and Amit Mishra then missed a scoop over the keeper's head and was trapped lbw.

Valthaty didn't get a chance to finish a hat-trick: the wickets came off the last two deliveries of the 19th over. However, he would get a chance to make the match his own when opening the innings. And how he owned the game. Carrying the confidence that he could do no wrong, Valthaty upper-cut and flicked Dale Steyn, then cut Ishant Sharma for a six, and took Manpreet Gony apart with some merciless hitting in the fifth over, which went for 23 runs.

Gambhir, Kallis set up outstanding win

Kolkata Knight Riders won by nine wickets and with nine deliveries to spare. It shouldn't have been that easy but Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis starred in a supremely well-paced chase as Kolkata successfully hunted down a potentially tough 160-run target on a sluggish track in Jaipur.

The first game-seizing moment of the chase came in the sixth over, bowled by Amit Singh. Kolkata were 44 for 1 from five overs and it was obvious that they had to fully utilise the new ball and the Powerplay on this slow track. It was an over that could have tilted the game either way: Amit tried to keep it tight, Gambhir took risks, two shots eluded palms of fielders in the off side but not by much, and Gambhir looted 18 runs. He flat-batted the first ball past the diving Ross Taylor at extra cover, slashed the third past the diving Abhishek Raut at point, glanced the fourth to fine-leg, and crashed the final delivery over mid-off.

The second turning point was Gambhir's contest with Shane Warne, who introduced himself in the seventh over. Gambhir cut his third delivery through the covers, and slog swept the first ball of the 10th over to collect another four. When Warne gave himself another over, to try and pick up a wicket, Gambhir sashayed down the track and scythed a flighted delivery through extra cover. By the end of that over, Kolkata only needed 58 runs from 48 balls and Gambhir and Kallis stayed till the end to achieve a comfortable win.

Gambhir found great support in Kallis, who was instrumental in starting the chase in a positive fashion. He lifted Ashok Menaria's left-arm spin for a four and a six over long-off in the third over, whipped Shane Watson to midwicket and slashed Nayan Doshi through backward point. He dropped anchor once Gambhir took over the baton

Sachin's first IPL Century

Two weeks ago, the crowd at the Wankhede was delirious though a fervently anticipated Sachin Tendulkar century didn't materialise. On Friday, the same crowd went home dejected despite Tendulkar crafting his first Twenty20 century, as Kochi Tuskers Kerala busted their party with one of the most memorable chases in IPL history.

Two of the world's finest Twenty20 batsmen, Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene, constructed chalk-and-cheese half-centuries to power Kochi's pursuit of 183. Both perished to Lasith Malinga's deadly deliveries but Kochi, who had stumbled in the final stretch of their first two games, didn't slip up this time as Ravindra Jadeja and Brad Hodge muscled boundaries to finish the game with an over to spare.

Tendulkar's effort checked off another item on his ever-shrinking to-do list, and Mumbai ran up a tall total without needing contributions from Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds and Kieron Pollard. It was then assumed that the bowlers would make the rest of the game a formality, but McCullum firmly put that assumption to rest by muscling three boundaries between mid-off and cover in Malinga's second over. The next big jump came in the sixth over from Pollard as McCullum swatted a four past midwicket and Jayawardene eased boundaries behind square on either side of the wicket.

The Mumbai fielding made things worse for the home team. Rohit Sharma dropped McCullum at first slip off the first ball, and Jayawardene was given a life by Ali Murtuza at backward point.

McCullum kept skating out of the crease and lashing the ball through the off side right through his innings, while Jayawardene was content shuffling across and using the bowler's pace, rarely powering the ball. The difference between the two batsmen's innings was highlighted in the ninth over as McCullum smashed the first ball over long-off, and Jayawardene reverse-paddled the fifth ball off the back of the bat for four.

Paul Valthaty ton stunned Chennai Super Kings to clinch a maiden win for Kings XI

The IPL's northernmost franchise found a hero with roots in the south, as Paul Valthaty stunned Chennai Super Kings to clinch a maiden win for Kings XI Punjab this season after a disappointing performance in their opening game. Valthaty was a surprise promotion to the opening slot, instead of the regular Shaun Marsh, and he answered the call with a blistering start, keeping his team on par with the required-rate in the middle overs and surging again at the death to complete victory after achieving a spectacular century.

At 27, with just one List A game and 13 Twenty20 matches, Valthaty had been on the sidelines of the Mumbai team on India's domestic circuit. His previous highest in the IPL was 6, but whatever he must have done at the practice sessions ahead of this game sparked a potentially career-changing turn of events. Punjab had been deflated at the end of the Chennai innings, after they had squandered the perfect start of two wickets off the first two balls to concede 188. The sight of an unfamiliar face walking out with Adam Gilchrist raised eyebrows, but it didn't take too long for Valthaty to justify his promotion.

Sachin Tendulkar named Wisden's leading cricketer in the world for 2010

Sachin Tendulkar added one more to his already bulging cap of feathers when he was named Wisden's leading cricketer in the world for 2010. Tendulkar enjoyed what was even by his standards an outstanding year in 2010, hitting over 1500 Test runs with 7 hundreds. He also went past the previously unthinkable mark of 50 Test match hundreds in 2010. In ODIs, he became the first batsman to hit the 200-run mark, doing it against the might of the South African attack.

The master batsman, who began this month with what he described as his proudest moment when he helped India win the World Cup on his home ground in Mumbai, is the seventh recipient of the Wisden award.

Unlike the winners of Wisden's coveted five cricketers of the year, it is possible to be named the world's best in the almanack more than once - and Tendulkar made it an Indian hat-trick, after Test opener Virender Sehwag took the honour in each of the last two years.

Tendulkar's citation concludes: "Wisden acknowledges his greatness by naming him as the leading cricketer in the world for 2010."

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