They say history repeats itself. It certainly did, in the case of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chris Gayle. On 6 May 2011, in a match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab played at Bengaluru, the home side rode on Chris Gayle’s 107 to post a formidable total and then restricted their opponents to 86 runs short. Four years later, on Wednesday, May 6, 2015, when RCB took on KXIP at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Gayle scored 117 and powered RCB to 226 for 3, after which the home team’s bowlers annihilated the visitors, bundling them out for 88. As quirk would have it, if Sreenath Arvind was wrecker-in-chief in that 2011 encounter, he would be at the centre of RCB's commanding performance with the ball on Wednesday too, picking up four wickets in the rout of KXIP. The margin of victory – 138 runs – was RCB’s biggest victory, and the second-biggest margin of victory in the IPL.

Earlier in the evening, KXIP captain George Bailey won the toss and inserted the hosts in. That, and the first over bowled by Sandeep Sharma – where only one run was scored - were the only moments that belonged the visitors over the next three hours.

Chris Gayle exploded in the second over; he picked up a streaky boundary off Mitchell Johnson first up, but then stamped himself on the Australian fast bowler. The third ball was deposited into the stands at long off, the fourth hit into the sightscreen and the fifth ball – a leg stump full toss – put away to the squareleg boundary.

That was just the beginning, as the Jamaican wouldn’t relent; he picked up two sixes and two boundaries off Sandeep Sharma in the third over and deposited a Johnson delivery over midwicket in the sixth over. Gayle brought up his half-century off 22 balls in the sixth over even as RCB had raced to 68 for no loss before the fielding restrictions had been relaxed.

After a brief period of calm – between overs seven and nine, Gayle opened up again, this time hitting Glenn Maxwell for consecutive sixes. In the tenth over, the left-arm spinner Axar Patel was at the receiving end as he was hit for two sixes.

The opening pair was separated in the twelfth over when Kohli couldn’t keep out a Sandeep Sharma yorker. The RCB openers had added 119 runs in 11.2 overs; Kohli’s contribution was 32 from 30 balls. Gayle continued to attack the hapless KXIP bowlers, hitting Karanveer Singh for consecutive sixes in the thirteenth over. And when he had put away a leg-stump delivery from Johnson to the fineleg boundary, Gayle had brought up his 14th century in Twenty20 cricket – and he needed only 46 balls to reach the three-figure mark.

The RCB opener perished at the end of the seventeenth over when he drove a half-volley from Axar Patel straight back, but the bowler was alert to cling on to the return catch. Gayle made 117 from 57 balls, aided by seven boundaries and twelve sixes. Some of the sixes he hit on the day were humongous; a few of the hits kissed the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium and returned to the field of play, while several others landed well into the second tier of the stands.

RCB were also helped by cameos from AB de Villiers (47 from 24 balls) and Sarfaraz Khan (11 from 7 balls), and finished their twenty overs at 226 for 3 – the highest total in Pepsi IPL 2015.

For KXIP, Sandeep Sharma returned the most successful bowler, picking up the wickets of Kohli and Dinesh Karthik with two perfect yorkers, while Anureet Singh was the only bowler to survive the onslaught, returning outstanding figures of 4-0-25-0.

When it was their turn to bat, KXIP were pushed on the backfoot losing the wicket of opener Manan Vohra to the fourth ball of the chase. After Harshal Patel accounted for the other opener – Murali Vijay, Sreenath Arvind, playing his first game of the season, ran through the visitors middle order, picking up four wickets in an unchanged spell to kill the contest. Mitchell Starc cleaned up the tail as KXIP were shot out for 88 – their lowest-ever total in the IPL.

Brief Scores

Royal Challengers Bangalore 226-3 in 20.0 Overs (Chris Gayle 117, Sandeep Sharma 2-41) beat Kings XI Punjab 88 in 13.4 Overs (S Arvind 4-27)

Man of the Match: Chris Gayle, for his 57-ball 117.