Thunderstorm gives way for Gayle

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Canberra

EVEN a real storm was no match for Chris Gayle at Manuka Oval in Canberra on Tuesday, when the jammy Jamaican ripped the record book to shreds in West Indies’ World Cup match against Zimbabwe.

Gayle smashed 215 against Zimbabwe at Manuka Oval in Canberra on Tuesday - the record score for a World Cup match and the highest by a West Indian in an ODI.

Gayle’s 16 sixes tied the number AB de Villiers hit in scoring 149 off a world record 44 balls against West Indies at the Wanderers last month as the most yet sent soaring over the boundary in an ODI.

“It’s got to that point where the fielders are becoming spectators and the spectators are becoming fielders,” Shaun Pollock said on commentary as another half-dozen cleared the fence.

The stand of 372 Gayle shared with Marlon Samuels - who quietly scored a mere 133 not out - is the biggest in ODI history for any wicket by any team. That took West Indies to a total of 372/2, their highest in the 372 ODIs they have played.

Then Gayle took 2/35 as Zimbabwe succumbed for 289 - 73 runs shy of their revised target of 363.

Gayle’s master blast was the fifth double century scored in the 3612 ODIs played. The first of those feats was achieved when Sachin Tendulkar made 200 not out against SA in Gwalior in the 2962nd ODI on February 24, 2010 - five years ago to the day. Just 650 games cover all five of those double hundreds, two of which belong to India’s Rohit Sharma.

And to think Gayle would never have accomplished any of the above had the first ball he faced, bowled by Tinashe Panyangara, struck his pads marginally lower.

What did Gayle think when the Zimbabweans referred umpire Steve Davis’ decision, and initial replays showed the call would be close?

“I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ - not in those words, though; there was some swearing,” Gayle said. “Call it a big relief when I was given not out.”

Gayle was also caught off a no-ball on 121 and off the free hit that followed, and to hear him tell it he should not have been able to swing a bat in anger at all much less score his first century in 20 ODI innings.

“It’s been a year and a couple of months since I’ve been playing with an injury,” Gayle said about his troublesome back, which caused him to grimace like a man twice his age as he sat down for his press conference.

Stranger than all that was the weather. A thunderstorm worthy of Johannesburg doing its worst soaked Canberra on Monday night, and more clouds swirled ominously for much of Tuesday. The accompanying humidity suggested another deluge was in store.

Indeed, radar projections showed an angry mass of thunder and lightning headed straight for the Australian federal capital and set to arrive early in the match.

Light drizzle duly fell through most of West Indies’ innings and indeed the match, but as the storm proper loomed overhead it split into two chunks of cloud and neatly skirted the city on both sides.

For once, the Gayle blowing on the ground was more dangerous than the one high above.