"chris-gayle"

Chahal, who has been out of form for quite some time, has already been pushed down to the lowest grade of BCCI's central contract after a poor last season.

, Punjab were in a spot of bother at one stage but Rahul's perseverance, power-hitting of Chris Gayle (46) and energy of Brar (25) ensured they had a competitive 179 for five on board

Punjab made a winning start but then slumped to three straight losses before producing a clinical show to beat defending champions Mumbai by nine wickets on Friday.

KL Rahul and Chris Gayle played unbeaten knocks of 60 and 43 as Punjab Kings defeated Mumbai Indians by nine wickets with 14 balls to spare here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday evening.

Off-spinner Kevin Sinclair earns his first West Indies selection and left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein gets his first T20I call-up as the Cricket West Indies (CWI) selection panel named the West Indies squads for the CG Insurance

Gayle was set to join the former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, local icon Kusal Perera, Sri Lankan T20 specialists Kusal Mendis and Nuwan Pradeep, and England right-arm fast bowler Liam Plunkett among others in the team.

A frustrated Gayle threw his bat, inviting sanction from the IPL committee. However, both Archer and Gayle showed spirit of the game when Archer appreciated Gayle’s knock. During knock, he also became the first cricketer to smash 1000 runs in T20s.  

Ben Stokes smashed a quickfire half-century inside the powerplay to set up the chase. With this loss, three teams - RR, KKR and KXIP - are on 12 points making it an interesting race for the playoffs.

Stokes hit a 26-ball 50 and also claimed two wickets to emerge as the star performer for his team

Chasing 150 on Monday night, Gayle, who was overlooked and was also ill in the first phase of the IPL, showed why he is called the 'Universe Boss' during his innings of 51 off 29 balls

The Punjab team jump to fourth spot after their fifth successive win

With captain KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal doing a great job at the opening slots, there was no place for Universe Boss Chris Gayle.

A win for Mumbai Indians will virtually seal them a spot in the play-offs while a loss for KXIP could send them out of contention.

He played his first match of the season when Kings XI Punjab took on Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Speaking after the victory, leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin, who picked up two wickets for 23 runs in his four overs, said they were delighted to win a game finally.

Chasing 172 in a must-win game, the in-form opening pair of Rahul (61 not off 49) and Mayank Agarwal (45 off 25) got off to a flying start before Gayle (53 off 45) joined his skipper

The inability to produce an all-round show and close out games they should have won has led to KXIP losing six out of their seven matches.

KXIP posted photos of Gayle returning to the nets on Monday

A mutual friend thought it would be a great idea for us to do a song together. I was introduced to Chris over a phone call while I was in Greece recently.

One of the most destructive batsmen in limited-overs cricket, Gayle prefers calling himself an entertainer. Fondly known as the Universe Boss, he says music is something he finds very enjoyable.