Gayle deh pon fire to rhatid.

[Islandman]

38 off bout 15 balls.

[Islandman]

LOL, them commentator yah nuh easy....

Ahmed to Gayle, SIX, feel for the sightscreen, it is taking a fearsome pounding, Gayle gets front leg out of the way, and murders a full ball over the bowler, it is hit so hard it wobbles erratically in the air before smashing in to the sightscreen

[Muadib]

ah wondah if Gayle tekking Steroids....

[Sickko]

Wow, just like that when it seems it was another big six and on his way to the century mark...entertaining knock non the less

[Islandman]

He has certainly earned his wages in this tournament.

[Sickko]

yeap..over 600 runs in what 10 games?

[Skeng DX]

D ICC FI MEK CRICKET SET LIKE FOOTBALL

where them mek test match stay but played by the top 5 or 6 nations

and phase OUT d 50 over match N make d 20/20 d short format
also make u have international dates like in futbol n dates when u play u club cricket

[Skeng DX]

In Jamiaca criss is a term used to suggest everything is all right. Royal Challengers Bangalore may as well rename him Criss Gayle. For with Gayle, they criss. Gayle fell 11 short of his third century this IPL, but for 15 overs he played so much above the game that the 37 that came in the last five didn't look far off par on this surface. Mayank Agarwal, his 20-year-old opening partner who is yet to make first-class debut, scored 41 off 31 in a 113-run opening stand.

Gayle will be the first one to concede, though, that he couldn't have found a more accommodating opposition. To begin with, Mumbai Indians opted to bowl on a track that sides batting first have won six out of seven games this season. Then they refused to take the bull by its horn, throwing the new ball to Abu Nechim as opposed to Lasith Malinga. It can be argued that they succeeded in the previous game with Dhawal Kulkarni bowling the first over, but surely against a side so heavily reliant on Gayle they would have unleashed their best bowler right away.

Nechim can still argue he hardly bowled a bad ball in that first over, and yet went for 27. The first of the boundaries came off the edge past slip, the second burst through Sachin Tendulkar at mid-off. Nechim, though, bowled length, and Gayle took six, two and four off the rest of the over. Agarwal played his part, foiling Mumbai's other strategic move of bowling Harbhajan Singh to Gayle. Gayle faced only one delivery in Harbhajan's two overs at the start, with Agarwal dominating the strike and hitting big, down the ground and with the turn, taking 20 runs.

More friendliness followed from Mumbai as Malinga dropped Agarwal at square leg. At 57 for 0 after four, it became a Gayle show. Malinga bowled one good over full of slower ones for just one, but Gayle had his way with the rest of the bowlers. Only Rohit Sharma escaped his wrath, but Agarwal tucked into him with a four and a six. The beauty of the partnership was obvious: the right-hand batsman took care of the offspinners, Gayle went after everything else. The best of Gayle perhaps revealed itself in the 10th over, when Nachim was almost through a decent comeback over for four runs. The last ball, though, hardly left the ground, and yet crashed into the sight screen. Gayle was 61 off 32 then, and Bangalore 111.

Rohit dropped Agarwal in the next over, but made amends two balls later. Gayle, however, was not through, and went on to suggest that maybe he didn't need any shielding from Harbhajan, smacking him for back-to-back sixes over midwicket. Munaf, who held his own along with Malinga, eventually got rid off Gayle with a slightly slower one, and patted Gayle's back as he walked back. All of a sudden, slower balls started working, the ball started gripping the surface, inside edges appeared, and the batting seemed like hard work. Just how well Gayle batted was further driven home.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-p...ch/501270.html

[Skeng DX]

Despite the early wickets, Tendulkar, through cricketing shots and some improvisation, kept Mumbai fans interested with 40 off 24, but ICL returnee J Syed Mohammad produced one sharp offbreak across Tendulkar to get him stumped. Kieron Pollard, who often teases the fans in such chases with late but insufficient hitting, was spectacularly and coolly caught by Abhimany Mithun at the edge of the long-on boundary. With the Mumbai dugout right behind him, Mithun stood with his feet six inches inside as the Mumbai extras made way for him, stretched over the boundary and completed the catch one-handed to shut the door on Mumbai. The filmstar Mithun, known for his outlandish stunts, would have been proud.

[Gamma]

if bangalore chases a big score 180 plus .... i expect them to lose and gayle to fail. if chennai scores 140 or less, they lose

gayle is more likely to make big runs if they bangalore bats first OR chennai does not make much runs.

[Islandman]

That does appear to be true. He is not really one to dig his team out of an almost hopeless position.

Respect is due though, when he is in top flight there are very few who are more devastating.

[Gamma]

no doubt about that whatsoever.

[Skeng DX]

A match-up that's worth the wait?



Big Picture

It's taken 73 games, but we're finally here. Seventy-three. Chew on that number for a moment. The IPL has had 50% more games than World Cup 2011, which was faulted for being too long. It's 16 games more than the first three World Cups combined. The IPL has tested viewer appetite and player endurance to the limit, in the process turning the less-is-more norm on its head. The audience has spoken: there is only so much cricket India can take. The players have started breaking under the strain: several overseas signings flew home early, the India squad going to West Indies is severely depleted. Seventy-three is a big number.

The verdict, though, can wait until No. 74 is out of the way. An exciting knockout phase is capable of glossing over all the faults of a bloated tournament, and IPL 2011 has been fortunate on that front - Bangalore's hammering of Mumbai in the virtual semi-final notwithstanding. The impact of a good, well-contested final can be even more far-reaching. The success of the most recent World Cup, and the equally resounding failure of the one that preceded it, are quite closely linked to the manner in which the final moments of the respective events panned out. For three years running, the IPL final has been a closely fought game. Can 2011 continue the trend?

Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore are opponents capable of producing that gripping denouement. Going by where they finished in the league table, they are the two best sides in the tournament. Both sides have been incredibly consistent, which is a considerable achievement in a tournament that goes on forever. Skeptics will point at Bangalore's dependence on Chris Gayle, and Chennai's dependence on home advantage. The former is a disservice to Virat Kohli and Bangalore's well-rounded bowling attack, while the latter betrays a poor grasp of the roller-coaster ways of Twenty20 - winning seven games on the trot at the same venue in this format is no mean achievement, regardless of the conditions.

Chennai and Bangalore have an interesting IPL history: in the one season when Chennai did not make the final (2009), it was Bangalore who stopped them in the semis. Chennai returned the favour in Champions League 2010, hustling their South-Indian neighbours out of contention. This year, they have traded blows three times already, with Chennai leading 2-1.

IPL 2011 has thrown everything at us, and the feeling at the end of it all is one of gluttonous excess. A cracking final, witnessed by a full house, and featuring good cricket (and that doesn't always mean scores of 200 from both sides) might be a good way to sign off. A Super Over finish will be "just what the doctor ordered".

Form guide (most recent first)

Chennai Super Kings: WLWWW
Bangalore Royal Challengers: WLWLW
Team talk

If Chennai go into the final with an unchanged XI, they will set a new IPL record for the maximum number of successive games without a replacement (six). The only uncertainty is over R Ashwin's availability, but indications are that he has fully recovered from the sickening blow he took on the head in the play-off. Chennai's combination has worked well in the lead-up to the big game, and even the weakest link - Wriddhiman Saha - has pulled his weight. The presence of Albie Morkel and Dwayne Bravo provides the side with immense depth, both with bat and ball. The one area they will want to improve on is their batting in the first six overs, where they either lose too many wickets or score too slowly.

Bangalore have looked under-strength in the lower-middle order right through the season, but it doesn't seem to matter to them. Instead of worrying about it, they actually chose to drop a batsman for Syed Mohammad's left-arm spin against Mumbai, and it worked when he accounted for Sachin Tendulkar's big wicket. Saurabh Tiwary is due a big performance, but both he and Bangalore will be hoping he doesn't have much work to do.

Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team Selector.

In the spotlight

Zaheer Khan and big finals have an interesting relationship. In World Cup 2003, bad Zaheer turned up, bowled a horror opening over and India never recovered. In World Cup 2011, though, he cracked the game open with three exemplary overs - all maidens. Zaheer, who was playing for Mumbai in 2010, will remember messing up a crucial catch in that IPL final, allowing Suresh Raina to take Chennai to an eventually match-winning score. Will it be Dr Zaheer or Mr Khan turning up for revenge on Saturday?

The final is a good time for Suresh Raina to take stock of his career. It was the IPL's first edition that gave him a second chance at the India side, and he's never looked back since. Raina's IPL dominance is not founded upon any single watershed season. He has topped 400 runs in all four editions of the IPL; no one else has managed it even three times. Raina will, however, know that there is tougher work ahead. He will soon be leading a depleted ODI side in the West Indies, and after that might be required to stand up to the seaming and bouncing red ball. A strong finish to the IPL will set him up for the challenges to come.

S Badrinath will march out on Saturday with his head held high, looking back with a smile and satisfaction at a season of toil that has borne fruit. He's scored runs in every avenue available to an Indian domestic batsman, and in the IPL, he has been one of the few incentives for the purists tuning in. Before he leaves for the Caribbean, will he lean forward with assurance, brandish the high elbow, drive through the line, and end a memorable season in copybook style?

Prime numbers

MS Dhoni has led teams to four major limited-overs titles - World Twenty20 2007, IPL 2010, Champions League 2010 and World Cup 2011. On each occasion, his campaign included one tied match. IPL 2011 has not had a single tie.
Chris Gayle has picked up six Man-of-the-Match awards this season, the most in a single IPL. The stat is further embellished by the fact that he's done so in just 11 games.
S Badrinath has scored the most half-centuries (five) this year. Gayle has passed 50 five times too, including two centuries.
The chatter

"We have been playing well throughout and deserve to be in the final. Once we lost against Chennai, we were pumped up to see them in the finals."
Payback is clearly on Zaheer Khan's mind

"It is nice to be back at home. If we wanted to play final, it is certainly at home … Back-to-back games will be tough to play in Chennai."
Stephen Fleming makes it clear that home advantage and three days of rest ahead of the final makes his side the favourites.

[Skeng DX]

u can watch d highlights here

@ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmr6K..._order&list=UL

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU3Q3...opCS4&index=23

[Willi]

Gayle is special!

Can he get better? Yes, but he is sooo good now.