Chris Gayle's Top 5 special performances

 

Chris Gayle

He is the kind of a player who does not believe in facial aggression but rather lets his bat do the talking. Gayle, who turns 34 today, is one of the most dangerous batsmen in the world today. He can contribute with the ball too, and has over a 150 wickets in ODIs, which most people tend to overlook, given his destructive batting style that leaves the opposition absolutely clueless.

He loves taking the aerial route while batting, and usually has more sixes than fours in his big innings unlike normal batsmen who prefer playing safe and finding the gaps. He has the unique record of hitting a six on the first ball of a test match. That being said, it doesn’t say that he lacks class and just throws his bat at anything. In fact, he is in a league of his own, which very few batsmen can hope to be in. Shahid Afridi and Virender Sehwag probably come close, but none have shown the brutality to tear apart the bowling attack, that Gayle has on so many countless occasions.

Here is a collection of 5 of his finest performances in cricket.

5. 107 and 3/25 vs Kings XI Punjab (IPL, Bangalore, 2011)

When Gayle stands in the limelight, then he stands alone. Nobody even attempts to come close to him, let alone equal him or surpass him. When he plays, everyone just sits back and watches. The IPL has been a very enjoyable journey for the Jamaican.

This particular innings he came out and started clubbing the Punjab bowlers for good. Most of his runs came straight of the wicket. He hit 9 gigantic sixes in his 68 ball inning, which saw the bowlers struggle against him mainly because of his attacking approach that was enough to unsettle them early on. Gilchrist sought to take advantage of his fast bowlers on a helpful track by bowling first. But Gayle had no plans to give in. Praveen Kumar, Ablish, Ryan Harris, Chawla – everybody was clueless against him. All bowlers had an economy of over 9 thanks to him.

Add to that the wickets of Valthaty, Dinesh Karthik and Chawla while bowling, and it completes the story of how a single man slaughtered an entire team. The RCB won by 85 runs and Gayle was Man of the Match.