IPL 2025: Chris Gayle will play for RCB as impact player
RCB's official Instagram handle on Monday posted a video of Chris Gayle interacting with RCB players, including Virat. During their conversation, Virat joked about Gayle returning to the team as an 'impact player' next year.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) camp, including star batsman Virat Kohli, had a heartwarming reunion with ‘Universe Boss’ and franchise icon Chris Gayle after their win over Chennai Super Kings on Saturday. IPL 2025: Chris Gayle will play for RCB as impact player.
After a dreadful first half of Indian Premier League 2024 in which they lost seven of their first eight games, RCB completed a fairytale turnaround with six consecutive wins and entered the playoffs by beating CSK in front of their home fans in Bengaluru on Saturday.
RCB’s official Instagram handle on Monday posted a video of Chris Gayle interacting with RCB players, including Virat. During their conversation, Virat joked about Gayle returning to the team as an ‘impact player’ next year. “Come back next year, the impact player a rule is on. You don’t have to do fielding anymore. It’s designed for you,” said Virat Kohli.
After the match against CSK, Kohli went to the top of the list of leading 6-hitters in the ongoing tournament. In 14 games, the 35-year-old has hit 37 sixes and is also the Orange Cap holder with 708 runs at an average of 64.36 and a strike-rate of 155.60.
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Kohli slipped to second in the table after Abhishek Sharma of SRH toppled him. Abhishek hit 6 sixes in the match against PBKS on Sunday and currently has 41 sixes to his name from 13 matches. Later, Virat gifted Gayle his signed number 18 jersey with a special message for his former teammate.
In 85 matches for RCB from 2011-17, Gayle scored 3,163 runs at an average of 43.33 with five centuries and 19 fifties at a strike rate of 152. His best score was 175*. He is part of the RCB Hall of Fame along with AB de Villiers and Vinay Kumar.
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Coming into the match, CSK won the toss and elected to bat first. Captain Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli’s 78-run partnership put RCB on the board with a good score of 218/5, setting the stage for Rajat Patidar and Cameron Green’s 71-run partnership for the third wicket. Dinesh Karthik and Glenn Maxwell’s lead roles took RCB to a 200-plus total.
RCB need to restrict CSK below 201 runs to qualify for the playoffs and surpass their net-run-rate. In a run chase of 219 runs and tasked with scoring at least 201 runs to book a top four spot, CSK lost two early wickets and slumped to 19/2. Rachin Ravindra and Ajinkya Rahane put on a 66-run partnership to bring the team into the game.
RCB skittled CSK to 129/6, but the partnership between Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni threatened to take the match away from RCB. However, Yash Dayal rescued 11 runs in the final over, restricting CSK to just 191/7 in 20 overs.
RCB are fourth with 14 points from seven wins and seven losses. CSK are fifth with seven wins and seven losses, but they have slipped to fifth due to a low net-run rate.
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