Chris Gayle's devastating knock of 96 helped Royal Challengers Bangalore to a thrilling three-wicket victory at Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.
The home team had reached a competitive 177-6 with a Gautam Gambhir's excellent 58 and a quickfire 41 from Andre Russell doing the damage for the defending champions at Eden Gardens on Saturday.
However, Gayle, who became the first player to reach 7,000 Twenty20 runs, was at his scintillating best, smashing the ball around for fun in an innings that included seven fours and seven sixes as Bangalore reached their target with six balls remaining.
The West Indies star rode his luck at times and was twice dropped by Morne Morkel, but he fell short of what would have been a deserved century after some excellent fielding from Manish Pandey.
Kolkata, fresh off a seven-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians in their IPL opener, punished a series of sloppy Bangalore fielding errors as Robin Uthappa (35) and Gambhir put on 81 for the opening wicket.
Uthappa was dismissed in the 11th over when he slapped Abu Nechim's delivery in the air to allow Darren Sammy to take the catch at long on.
Gambhir brought up his 50 with a single down leg side in the 13th over, but he was soon dismissed when he was caught at midwicket by Mandeep Singh when attempting to slog Yuzvendra Chahal.
Russell boosted Kolkata's tally with a superb knock of 41 off just 17 deliveries - including two sixes and six fours as Kolkata put on 55 from the final five overs.
Bangalore's reply started inauspicious fashion as Virat Kohli (13), Dinesh Karthik (6) and Mandeep (6) fell cheaply.
Gayle and AB de Villiers (28) steadied the ship with a 37-run stand until the latter became KC Cariappa's first IPL victim.
Gayle was handed a reprieve in the 12th over when he was dropped by Morkel at midwicket and he made Kolkata pay by smashing a full toss from Yusuf Pathan straight over the bowler's head for six in the same innings.
Amazingly, Morkel again put Gayle down at the end of the 16th over and it once more proved costly as he smashed back-to-back sixes off Shakib Al Hasan.
Gayle's fine innings came to an end in the 19th over when Pandey did brilliantly to prevent another six at the ropes before throwing a direct hit as the batsman was too slow coming back for the second.
It made little difference, though, as the Challengers easily found the seven runs they required to get off to a winning start.