Virat Kohli, on way to his unbeaten 73, on Thursday

New Delhi: Chris Gayle blasted a whirlwind unbeaten 128, studded with incredible 13 sixes, as Royal Challengers Bangalore thumped Delhi DareDevils by 21 runs to keep their play-offs hopes alive in the Indian Premier League here on Thursday.

With his maiden hundred of IPL-V, Gayle became the first batsman to score 700 or more runs in a single edition as RCB scored a mammoth 215 for one after being invited to bat at the Kotla.

The marauding West Indian surpassed Sachin Tendulkar’s 618 runs which the Mumbai Indians batsman had scored in 2009-10 while Gayle now has scored 706 runs this season.

With his skipper Virat Kohli (73 not out off 53 balls), Gayle rattled up an unconquered 204-run stand, second-highest partnership for any wicket in IPL, to set up the huge target.

Gayle’s 62-ball knock was also the second highest individual score by a batsman in the IPL history.

With someone such as Virender Sehwag missing from the line-up, it was a daunting task for the DareDevils to chase down such a huge target and all they could manage was 194 for nine in their 20 overs. Nevertheless, it was a spirited reply by DareDevils with Ross Taylor top-scoring with a 26-ball 55 and Y Venugopal Rao contributing 36 runs. Andre Russell (31 off 15) hit some lusty shots towards the end but it was too late for the DareDevils.

The pace duo of Zaheer Khan (3/38), Prasanth Parameswaran (3/30) and R Vinay Kumar (2/35) shared eight wickets among them.

RCB are now fifth with 17 points and have their last match against Deccan Chargers on May 20. Chennai Super Kings’ defeat at the hands of Kings XI Punjab earlier helped Bangalore’s cause as the defending champions stayed on 17 points.

The hosts needed big-hitting David Warner to fire but the Australian managed just 15 runs and he was back in the dug out with fellow opener Unmukt Chand (15) early.