Chris Gayle comes to the party

There was a brief period when Chris Gayle was away from strike after the first over on Wednesday. But when the West Indian opener came back on strike, England suffered a heart-attack. 

Gayle became the first batsman to score two T20 hundreds and during that unbeaten 100 off 47 balls the West Indian broke many records in the shortest format. But there was one word that would describe the Gayle innings in his own words, that was ‘entertain’ and not ‘destroy’.

“The preparation has been really good, it’s all about practicing then doing it in the middle. The dew played a part as well. After facing the first over I took a while to get back on strike, but Marlon helped ease the pressure. 

We wanted to stay ahead of the run-rate, pleased to finish the game and not leave it to anyone else,” Gayle said after the West Indian victory. “I was pumped. Before I went out, Sulieman Benn said ‘entertain me’. The guys who play the IPL know it’s a good wicket so we knew we always had a chance to chase it down. 

Hopefully, we can move onto Sri Lanka now. Bangalore, my home town. Hopefully I can entertain again. The celebration was all about DJ Bravo and his new song.” West Indies coach Phil Simmons thought Gayle’s destructive batting was similar to that of Viv Richards and said Gayle was “up there with Sir Vivian” in tearing apart bowling attacks. His previous had come in the first ever World T20 match when West Indies opened the 2007 tournament against South Africa. He also overtook Brendon McCullum’s record for the most number of sixes in the Twenty20 format, and closed in on a century of them. 

“To destroy an attack like that, I think the only person in my time that I would put him with is Sir Vivian because Sir Vivian used to go out there and destroy attacks like that so I think he is up there with Sir Viv in the way he tears apart attacks,” Simmons said. He said his instructions to Gayle were simple: stay at the crease for 15 overs. “Bat 15 overs for me. That’s all I need from you. I know that once you bat fifteen overs we are somewhere near to the target that we want, whether we are setting or chasing.” The fact West Indies chasing 183, rather than something over 200, was another  significant tick for Simmons although felt his side had leaked a few too many runs at either end of the innings.