Another Gayle-show adorned the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League as Kings XI Punjab picked up a comfortable win over Kolkata Knight Riders. Chris Gayle clubbed his third successive fifty in the tournament as he steered the team to victory.

Winning the toss KXIP opted to bowl first. Chris Lynn’s 74-run innings powered KKR to post 191 runs for 7 wickets. Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik made 34 and 43 runs respectively while no other batsmen managed to go past 15 runs.

Barinder Sran and Andrew Tye bagged 2 wickets each for Punjab. Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Ravichandran Ashwin also got one wicket apiece.

While chasing the big total, Gayle and Lokesh Rahul went all guns blazing against KKR’s bowling attack. Rain stopped the game when they were just 96 runs short of the target with 70 deliveries in hand.

The target was dropped to 125 due to the D/L method and now KKR had to defend 29 runs in 28 balls. That was indeed a herculean task against a flamboyant Gayle partnered with a fired-up KL Rahul.

However, Rahul got out scoring 60 off 27 when KXIP were 9 runs away from the target. The Caribbean then sealed the match for his team with 11 balls remaining. KXIP clinched a 9-wicket victory as Gayle remained unbeaten on 62 runs. Mayank Agarwal also remained not out scoring 2 runs.

KXIP are now leading the points table with four wins from four matches. They will take on Delhi Daredevils in their next match on April 23. KKR will face the same opponents as KXIP after enjoying a long break, on April 27.