Chris Gayle played another attacking innings on Thursday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad has been one of the best bowling sides in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season. However, their bowling attack encountered a storm on Thursday- in the form of Chris Gayle.
Chris Gayle scored his 21st T20 century and the first century of IPL 2018 as he made 104 runs off 62 balls for Kings XI Punjab in Mohali.
Gayle played with caution (at least by his standards) in the beginning. Punjab started relatively slow as they reached fifty in the 7th over. They soon lost KL Rahul who made 18 off 21. Gayle was then well supported by cameos from Mayank Agarwal (18 off 9) and Karun Nair (31 off 21).
The West Indies batsman reached his 50 off 39 balls. However, he let loose after completing his half century. Gayle was having trouble while running, but that proved more detrimental for SRH as the big man dealt in sixes only.
Hit hit Rashid Khan for four straight sixes in one hour.
Gayle reached his 100 off 58 balls with 11 sixes and just one four.
Gayle talked about still feeling fit and being in good touch after the innings.
He said, "A lot of people thought I'm too old, after this innings, I have nothing to prove."
He dedicated the century to his daughter.
"This hundred is dedicated to my daughter. Tomorrow is her birthday."
Hyderabad has been one of the teams against who Gayle has not performed really well. Before this match he had only managed to score 220 runs at an average of 24.44 against them. But everything changed on Thursday.
Chris Gayle had made his KXIP debut against Chennai Super Kings at Mohali on Sunday, where he scored a blistering 63 runs from just 33 balls.
His innings included four sixes and seven fours. Considering that it was his first match against in this edition of IPL, he showed the world why he is still the most destructive in the world.
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