Bangalore, Oct 4 (IANS): On a cloudy late Monday with rain gods keeping away, home team Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) Chris Gayle storm blew away English county Somerset by 51 runs to keep hopes alive in the ICC Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) at the Chinnaswamy stadium in this tech hub.
Setting an imposing target of 207 runs in a must-win game, RCB mauled a defiant Somerset to 155 for six wickets after its big hitter Chris Gayle returned to form and blasted 86 in 46 balls with eight massive sixes and four fours.
Barring openers Peter Trego, who played a cameo innings of 58 in 38 balls with three sixes and six four, and Craig Kiewwetter, other Somerset batters could not resist a spirited attack of the marauding Royals and surrounded tamely after being on course in the first 10 overs with seven wickets in hand.
Though Trego played through the innings till 16 overs, he did not get support to chase the target or build partnerships after Craig left in fifth over for 26 in 19 balls with two sixes and three fours.
RCB skipper Daniel Vettori and Sreenath Arvind shared two Somerset wickets each, while Dirk Nannes and Raajoo Bhatkal took one wicket each.
Earlier, put to bat first, a desperate RCB made a determined start with the West Indian southpaw blazing guns all the way to steer the innings in steady partnerships first with Tillakaratne Dilshan (23) and later with Virat Kohli (33), Saurab Tiwary (18) and Mayank Agarwal (19).
For Somerset, Alfonso Thomas and Steven Kirby shared two wickets each.
As in the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2011) early this year, Gayle rescued RCB from a tricky situation by staying through the innings till the 18th over taking Somerset attack to the cleaners.
Ironically, Trego bore the brunt of the Royal's challenge giving away 50 runs in three overs for no wicket.
After losing its first two games against Warriors in the tournament's opening tie Sept 23 and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Sep 29, RCB is still at the bottom of Group B despite grabbing two points from this tie.
The home team can still fancy a semi-final berth if it beats South Australia Redbacks Oct 5 with a better net run-rate (+0.438) than KKR, which has four points from four games but +0.306 net run-rate.
Somerset, on the other hand, came into the match with lone win over KKR Sept 25 in Chennai and shared one point with SAB in a rain-hit abandoned tie here Saturday.
The outcome of Somerset versus Warriors Oct 5 will determine who will be the other team in Group B to walk into the other semis.