Gaylestorm Gone, Hurricane Gayle Now!

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 23^rd 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.