The Greatest Innings to Chris Gayle 175* In Ipl
Christopher Henry Gayle, or as he is famously known ‘Gayle-storm’, smashed the greatest innings ever in the history of T20 games.
Royal Challengers Bangalore were playing against Pune Warriors at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. The only thing Pune Warriors on that day was the toss after which they elected to bowl. Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan were opening the innings. The game started slowly and was also interrupted by showers after the first over. After a delay of half an hour, the game resumed again.
It was from the second over that the carnage of fours and sixes began. After just 8.5 overs Gayle had already reached three figures (103 runs). Inclusive of eight fours and eleven sixes, 98 runs were amassed without running. He reached his century in merely 30 deliveries, which was four balls faster than the previous fastest hundred. Andrew Symonds achieved this feat in 2004 against Middlesex. The record remains intact, and only Rishabh Pant came close to breaking it in 2018 when he scored a 32-ball hundred.
On the other end his partner, Dilshan was struggling at 17 runs from 25 balls as Bangalore reached 123 runs without any loss of wickets. Gayle’s second part of the innings was relatively slow as he scored 75 from 36 balls. He still eased past Brendon McCullum’s T20 best of 158 runs to set the highest individual score of 175 in 66 balls in a T20 match.
Gayle spared no bowler that day, be it the youngsters Ishwar Pandey and Ali Murtuza or the experienced Mitchell Marsh. The situation got so out of hand that Aaron Finch, the Pune Warriors skipper tried his hand at bowling and he conceded 29 runs.
Chris Gayle 175 For Royal Challengers Bangalore:
The Caribbean batsman scored by Chris Gayle 175 runs from just 66 balls, the highest individual score to be registered in a T20 game. He also broke the record for the fastest 100, by reaching the feat in just 30 deliveries. His knock included a total of 17 sixes, the highest at that time, and 13 boundaries. Due to his marvelous knockout, his team went on to post 263 runs for 5 wickets. It remains the highest total by a team in IPL.
Gayle also had a wonderful day with the ball. The visitors were restricted to a mere 133 runs for 9 wickets. He bowled the last over conceding only 5 runs and two wickets. Bangalore went on to win the game by a massive margin of 130-runs, currently the 5th highest margin in IPL history.
About the game, Gayle said that he didn’t just want to stay and get a hundred, but wanted to stay there till the 18th over to post a good total, which he eventually did. Captain Virat Kohli said he was privileged to have watched the innings live. Opposition captain Aaron Finch said that Gayle’s innings no matter how special dented his bowler’s confidence. He added that for a man like Gayle no boundary is big enough and how difficult it is to stop him.
Chris Gayle who is now 40 and represents Kings XI Punjab has the highest number of centuries to his name, I.e. 6. He also has a massive record of hitting the most sixes at 323. Gayle was also the first-ever batsman to reach a 150+ score twice in the T20 format. This feat was achieved on 31st May against his debut for Somerset. However, Brendon McCullum, matched the record of 150+ scores in T20 when he scored 158 not out against Derbyshire.