Best Centuries In Successful Chases in IPL History

#1: David Miller (101*, 8x4, 7x6)

For: Kings XI Punjab

Against: Royal Challengers Bangalore

Date: 6th May 2013

Miller enroute to his match-winning 101*

Kings XI Punjab seem to be making a habit of having these players, who can come good for them in a chase, and turn the game on its head, almost single-handedly. Following in the footsteps of Mahela Jayawardene in 2010, and Paul Valthaty in 2011, David Miller produced arguably the greatest ever second innings IPL performance against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013.

Punjab captain David Hussey won the toss and elected to field first, a decision he may have regretted whilst he was out there. Bangalore openers Cheteshwar Pujara and Chris Gayle put on 102 in 11.2 overs for the first wicket, when Gayle departed for 61, scored off just 33 balls. Pujara was next to depart, his 51 runs coming off 48 deliveries. Some late power hitting from AB de Villiers and Moises Henriques (38* off 19 and 16* off 7 respectively) saw the Challengers eventually finish on 190/3.

The Punjab innings started slowly, and the batsmen never really got going due to the loss of wickets at regular intervals. Miller entered the fray in the eighth over with the loss of Gurkeerat Singh, and 3 wickets down for 51. Just 2 overs later, Miller lost the support of his captain, David Hussey, caught by Henriques off Murali Kartik. The score: 64/4, with 127 runs still required off 61 balls, and Miller as the last recognized batsman. Punjab had to win this game to keep any hopes of a playoff spot alive.

Even after 13 overs, with the score at 95/4, and a further 96 runs still to get, it seemed that this game was going to be RCB's all the way. What followed, however, was something that the crowd in Mohali would never be able to forget. Miller launched a devastating counter-attack on the RCB bowling line-up, in an exhibition of power hitting rarely seen thus far in the IPL. He plundered 26 runs off the 15th over, bowled by RP Singh to take the equation down to 53 required off 5 overs. By the time the 100 of the partnership was up, his partner, Rajagopal Sathish had contributed just 11 to that.

When the dust had finally settled, Punjab needed just 19 runs off the last 3 overs. The 18th, bowled by Chris Gayle, saw some big hitting form Sathish, before he turned it over to Miller, who hit the last ball of the over for six, his seventh of the innings to complete his hundred (off just 38 balls), and a remarkable comeback for the IPL's northernmost franchise, as they completed the run chase with 2 overs to spare.