Chris Gayle became the first player in history to cross 14,000 runs in T20 cricket. Gayle achieved the feat during his knock of 67 from 38 balls in the third T20I against Australia in St Lucia.
The West Indian legend reached the landmark in a typical fashion by hitting a six-over wide long-on against leg-spinner Adam Zampa. This was also Gayle’s first fifty in T20Is since 2016. He smashed three consecutive sixes to get to his half-century.
Gayle has now over 14000 runs in 431 T20 games, and the big hitter is well ahead in the highest T20 run-scorer list. The next on the list is Gayle’s teammate Kieron Pollard with 10836 runs in 545 matches. The following on the list are Shoaib Malik, David Warner, Virat Kohli, and so on.
Chasing 142, Windies lost the opener, Andre Fletcher, in the very first over. Lendl Simmons and Chris Gayle then put a 38-run stand for the second wicket before Riley Meredith grabbed the wicket of Simmons. Gayle continues playing his natural stroke play and put West Indies on top before getting out on 67. Pooran and Andre Russell added the finishing touch and guided the hosts to a series win over Australia.
Batting first, Australia got off to a solid start, scoring 41 from the first five overs. But Windies bowlers picked the wickets in the regular intervals and didn’t let Australia put up a big total. Moises Henriques top-scored for Australia with 33 off 29 and a handy 24 off 22 from Ashton Turner in the last few overs took them to a respectable total. Hayden Walsh took 2/18 in his four overs for West Indies.
Chris Gayle credits Pollard and Bravo for his match-winning innings
“From a personal point of view, we all know that I was struggling, so it was pleasing to get runs. I want to dedicate these runs to my teammates, especially Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo.”
“To Kieron Pollard, he played a big part as well even though he played in none of these games. He stands tall for the person I am and what I’ve achieved. He let me know where I stand within this team and he wanted me to go and express myself. So I’m very grateful for that pep talk because sometimes it doesn’t matter how great you are, you need a bit of a talk sometimes. That coming from Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo with big support in the media as well. I have to commend those senior guys, they played a fantastic part in what happened today. With this strength and unity, we’re playing some great all-around cricket and I’m really pleased to win this series.” Gayle added (To Cricbuzz)