West Indies’ Chris Gayle became the first man in the history of T20I cricket to hit a century of sixes.
The Kingston-born batsman hit four towering sixes in signature Gayle fashion in the lone Twenty20 clash between hosts England and the West Indies at Chester-le-street on Friday.
The 37-year-old was recalled to the West Indies T20I setup for the first since helping the team win the ICC World T20 2016 in July earlier this year for the one-off match against India.
Gayle was retained for the sole T20I clash against England and the Jamaican reminded everyone once again of his prowess in the shortest format of the game after the visitors were put in to bat by Eoin Morgan.
The tall left-handed batsman started in streaky fashion after edging the very first delivery he faced wide of first-slip. After a quite first couple of overs, Gayle burst into life in the third of the innings, bowled by seamer David Willey.
The opener tore into Willey’s third delivery of the over to dispatch the ball comfortably over the mid-wicket boundary for a six. That six would prove to be the 100th of Gayle’s T20I career which has seen him make 51 appearances for his country.
Bang! Chris Gayle becomes the first player to hit 💯 T20I sixes 🙌 #ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/LAU4sdMUrJ
— ICC (@ICC) September 16, 2017
Huge hitting from Gayle to become the first player to hit 100 IT20 sixes!
WI 40/0 #ENGvWI
Follow: https://t.co/Y5NV0iqvZd pic.twitter.com/pWD34esZtZ
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 16, 2017
Much more punishment was to come for Willey in the next delivery, when Gayle showed the full extent of his brute force to send the balls straight down the ground and miles into the stand.
Next to face the wrath of the Jamaican’s bat was pacer Tom Curran in the following over. Gayle stood back and swiped a back-of-a-length delivery from Curran for a mammoth six over long-on.
Chris Jordan was another component of the English pace attack who witnessed Gayle’s destruction first-hand when his good length delivery was chipped over the covers with comfortable ease by the 37-year-old.
After displaying the best of his talents to the packed crowd at Chester-le-street, Gayle showed the ugly side to his game in the seventh over of the innings.
Having blasted his way to a 20-ball 41, the left-handed showed why he hates taking singles anymore for the large part of the last two-years.
WICKET! Brilliant form @JasonRoy20 and @Liam628 to run out Gayle for 40! 🙌
WI 77/1 #ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/G7ndwtgmuc
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 16, 2017
Gayle dabbed a slowed delivery from Liam Plunkett to the right of Jason Roy at backward point leading the non-striker Elvin Lewis to set off for a single.
He hesitated initially but caved in to his partner’s call as he began ambling like a gentle giant towards the opposite crease. In the end, so gentle was the Jamaican’s amble that Plunkett had enough time to collect Roy’s wayward throw and disturb the bails with Gayle not bothering to put a dive in to secure safety.
After coming in like a hurricane, Gayle ultimately bowed out with a whimper. In the end, the visitors managed to put up a 177 runs in their 20 overs to set England a stiff target.
