Watching Chris Gayle
in action the thought often comes to our mind, what will happen if he gets just
uncontrollable like the unstoppable bullet train or the speeding bus! That’s
exactly what happened yesterday, the 23rd of April 2013, in Bangalore in his team
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)’s match against Pune Warriors during the
on-going Indian Premiere League—2013 (IPL-6). His bulldozing yet
effortless shots all around the park created world records not just for IPL or T20 Cricket,
but also for the world of cricket.
Gayle raced to
his century in just 30 balls, a world record in all formats of cricket. He hit
13 fours and 17 huge sixes in his unbeaten knock. His tally of 17 sixes created
another world record in all formats of the game, and RCB had also achieved a
new high of 23 team sixes in a match. He did not seem to end his innings at 175, but the allotted
20 overs were over by then. This became the highest individual score ever in
the history of T20 cricket. He helped his team reach a total of 263—the
highest ever team score in the history of T20 cricket. In fact, Gayle has also completed a century with the help of sixes only (17 * 6= 102!). By then the result of
the match was a forgone conclusion with the hapless Pune Warriors losing by a
huge margin of 130 runs. Gayle already holds an IPL record of scoring four big
hundreds.
Chris Gayle’s
unbelievable knock of 175 in 66 balls created ripples throughout the world of
cricket. India
captain and T20 specialist MS Dhoni got overwhelmed by the superlative display
of flawless batting. Darren Sammy, the West
Indies
captain, had reportedly expressed his ecstasy saying Gayle was “not human, he’s
a tsunami mixed with a nuclear bomb”. Yes, he is definitely Hurricane Gayle. His
knock assumes great significance in IPL-6 where most of the matches played so
far are low-scoring and choked with the bowlers enjoying an edge and achieving
several hattricks already.
It is another
wonder that despite having a player like Chris Gayle as the opener RCB has not
been able yet to lift the title or rather any kind of T20 Championship titles,
though they have proved to be the most consistent team in IPL reaching the
knockout or semis stage several times.
But then, IPL-6
is not even halfway through, only 33 match have been played and in all there
are 76 scheduled matches. With the participation of many greats and veterans
this extravaganza of money spinning tournament has invariably managed to inject
some amount of genuine cricket too. By the way, today India cricket
giant Sachin Tendulkar turns 40. Wishing him a Happy Birthday the cricket-crazy
nation must be geared up to see some fascinating cricket from the little master
in the rest of the IPL-6 matches.
