Rajkot: Brendon McCullum turned the clock back with a masterful 72 but it was not enough to see the Gujarat Lions home against a mammoth 213 posted by Royal Challengers Bangalore here on Tuesday.
The former Kiwi skipper sizzled, hitting two boundaries and seven sixes in 44 balls faced, but the Lions fell short by 21 runs as he received little support from the other end.
RCB rode a blistering 38-ball 77 from West Indies opener Chris Gayle and solid contributions down the order to run up an imposing 213/2.
Invited to bat, Gayle and skipper Virat Kohli gave Bangalore a fast start as they amassed 45 in the first six overs and then went on to forge a 122-run opening partnership off 76 balls.
Scorecard
Royal Challengers Bangalore: C. Gayle lbw b Basil Thampi 77, V. Kohli c Smith b Kulkarni 64, T. Head (not out) 30, K.M. Jadhav (not out) 38. Extras: (lb 1, w 3) 4. Total: (for 2 wkts, in 20 overs) 213
FoW: 1-122, 2-159
Bowling: Kulkarni 4-0-37-1 (1w), Thampi 4-0-31-1, Tye 4-0-34-0, Jadeja 4-0-57-0, Kaushik 3-0-36-0 (1w), Smith 1-0-17-0 (1w)
Gujarat Lions: D. Smith c Mandeep b Chahal 1, B. McCullum c Milne b Chahal 72, S. Raina c Watson b Chahal 23, A. Finch st Jadhav b Negi 19, D. Karthik c Kohli b Aravind, R. Jadeja (run out) 23, Ishan Kishan c Chahal b Milne 39, A. Tye (not out) 6, B. Thampi (not out) 0
Extras: (lb 2, w 6) 8. Total: (for 7 wkts; in 20 overs) 192
FoW: 1-1, 2-37, 3-103, 4-106, 5-137, 6-165, 7-191
Bowling: Negi 4-0-21-1 (1w), Chahal 4-0-31-3 (1w), Aravind 4-0-53-1 (1w), Milne 4-0-43-1 (3w), Watson 2-0-24-0, Head 2-0-18-0
