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IPL: Gayle leads Kings XI rout
Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), riding high on a hurricane century by Chris Gayle, handed out a massive 138-run defeat to a spiritless and spineless Kings XI Punjab in an Indian Premier League match and moved into the fourth spot with their fifth win in 10 outings here on Wednesday.
It was a hiding of sorts as RCB piled up 226 for three which left visiting skipper George Bailey ruing his decision to field after winning the toss, and under pressure, the visitors collapsed to 88 in 13.4 overs as pacemen Mitchell Starc (4 for 15) and Sreenath Aravind (4 for 24) sliced through the line-up.
Gayle struck a brilliant 117 off 57 balls, with seven fours and 12 sixes.
For Kings XI Punjab, runners-up last season, but looking like ragtag team, it was their fifth consecutive defeat in 10 matches, leaving them at the bottom of the eight-team league with just four points with little hopes of qualifying for the playoffs.
RCB, with a massive total on the board, bowled well even as the Kings XI batsmen, barring Axar Patel (40 not out, 21b, 5×4, 2×6) showed little or no determination to even make a fight of it, much less win the game.
The early dismissals of openers Manan Vohra (2) who replaced Virender Sehwag, and Murali Vijay (2), took the wind out of Kings XI sails.
It was a regular procession thereafter before Axar Patel used the long handle, but to little effect as wickets fell in a heap at the other end.
RCB, thus, recorded their biggest IPL victory (in terms of runs), beating their previous best of 130-run win over Pune Warriors in 2013, at this very venue when Gayle smashed his highest T20 score of 175.
Earlier, it was all about Gayle and his 14th T20 century as he led a merciless onslaught on the Punjab bowlers who were made to look ordinary while the home batsmen rained 18 sixes and 14 boundaries on a balmy night when the rains stayed away.
The visiting attack had no answer to first Gayle, who was let off when on 27 with Bailey unable to get to a skier off Sandeep Sharma in the third over of the innings.
The lapse proved costly as Gayle showcased his brute power as well as a fine sense of timing to gallop to his century.
Spearhead Mitchell Johnson, bowling at some speed, leaked 43 runs in his four overs while left-arm spinner Axar Patel went for 51.
Only seamer Anureet Singh, though wicketless, looked the part, conceding just 25 runs in four overs.
Gayle and skipper Virat Kohli (32) laid the platform with a 119-run partnership for the first wicket in just 11.2 overs before the innovative de Villiers joined the Jamaican to heap more misery on Punjab bowlers.
Along with de Villiers, Gayle, who completed 3,000 runs in IPL, added 72 runs before offering a tame return catch to Patel.
The South African then took over and though he lost Dinesh Karthik (8), picked up some easy runs in the company of young Sarfaraz Khan (11 not out) to ensure RCB a winning total.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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