Chris Gayle has proved once again that the Indian Premier League is his real playground. The big West Indian smashed his way to a 56-ball 96 as Royal Challengers Bangalore brought an end to Kolkata Knight Riders' winning streak of 10 matches at Eden Gardens on Saturday night.

Gayle was in an unrelenting mood, and by hitting IPL debutant KC Cariappa for a six and a four in the so-called mystery spinner's first over, he gave ample proof of that. He ended up hitting seven fours and seven sixes before a run-out culminated his innings within nine runs of victory. As the RCB dug-out broke into celebrations, Morne Morkel, who accounted for Virat Kohli early into the chase, was left to rue dropping Gayle on 63 off the bowling of Yusuf Pathan.

At that stage it looked like RCB were back into the contest but then Russell caught them unawares and smashed a 17-ball 41* (6x4s, 2x6s). However, his efforts were dwarfed by those of Gayle.