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Gayle destroys attacks like Sir Vivian: Phil Simmons

The defeated look on England captain Eoin Morgan’s face said it all on Wednesday night, as much as the glee on West Indies head coach Phil Simmons’s.

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Chris Gayle is only the second batsman to score two T20I hundreds
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There is nothing the opposition team can do when Chris Gayle decides to hit. On Wednesday night at the Wankhede, it was the poor, inexperienced England bowlers who faced the wrath of the 36-year-old West Indies left-hander as he batted like a man possessed.

Gayle became only the second batsman after Brendon McCullum to score two T20I hundreds when he smashed 11 sixes and just five fours in a 48-ball unbeaten 100 as West Indies made light work of the 183 target. In all Twenty20 matches, Gayle is way ahead at 17 for highest number of centuries, 10 clear of second-best McCullum. 

Gayle has played for T20 cricket for 18 teams, right from the West Indies national team to even the Professional Cricketers Association XI and including the various leagues in different countries and also franchise cricket in Zimbabwe. All these amount to 240 T20 career matches since 2005. So, this Jamaican knows how to go about in the shortest format.

The defeated look on England captain Eoin Morgan’s face said it all on Wednesday night, as much as the glee on West Indies head coach Phil Simmons’s.

“To destroy an attack like that, the only person in my time that I would put him with is Sir Vivian (Richards) because Sir Vivian used to go out there and destroy attacks like that too. I think he is up there with Sir Vivian in the way he tears apart attacks,” Simmons, himself a big-hitting batsman in the 1980s and 1990s and a team-mate of Viv Richards, said.

BAT 15 OVERS FOR ME, MAAN

As a coach, there is nothing one can tell Gayle in terms of tearing apart the opposition. All Simmons asks from Gayle is to bat for 15 overs. “If we can get Chris batting 15 overs every game, we can close enough to win every game. ‘Bat 15 overs for me. That is all I need from you’,” the 52-year-old Trinidadian said.

Gayle went a step further than what his coach asked of him, staying till the end. And the end result was total carnage using just 30 scoring shots.

The way Gayle goes about business gives an impression that he makes it look so easy and simple. Simmons said that he bats in the nets the way he did it in the Super 10 Group 1 opener.

“I think it is as simple as you see it because this is the first time I am with the T20 team since I have been back. I have been sitting and talking to him to see how he works this out. It is as simple as he makes it look out there. He actually analyses as simple as he does it. He practices hard, he hits a lot of balls in the nets but he works it out just as he did today. He says, ‘(Adil) Rashid is my bowler for the day, I will take him down’. It is as simple as that,” Simmons said.

HE DID WHAT HE DOES: MORGAN

Morgan did not look for excuses for his team’s six-wicket loss with 11 deliveries unutilised. Instead he paid tributes where it was due.

“He certainly did what he does. He was astounding in conditions that favoured the bat a lot more than the ball. We could have been better in the way we executed things. But certainly when he got in, he did not give any chances and took the attack to the bowlers,” Morgan said.

Morgan admitted it was simply Gayle’s night out. “There are a number of plans (to stop him). We bowled short to him for a while and he countered that. He’s a very difficult batsman (to dislodge). He chooses to put a lot of dots but has the ability to take any of our bowlers down in just one over. You try and make the risk in our favour but tonight (Wednesday), his skill level has quite high.

“Everybody knows how he plays. He has played that way for a very long time. That’s just the way he plays. Coming into the game, if he did get himself in, and we did expect that, we have played against him before where it has worked in our favour. But tonight was his night.”

It was indeed Gayle’s night. But the pressure was off him early on when Marlon Samuels, at No. 3, went on the attack to score 
Simmons said: “We all talk about Chris today but Marlon set up the game nicely for us with the way he played. He took a lot of pressure off Chris. We know if he plays like that, he is a class act. If we can get him to play like that in every match, he might not get off in every match but he will get some 70s and 80s also, he can win matches for us. He must be commended in the way he took pressure off Chris early.”

Trivia

West Indies played more dot balls, 48, compared to England's 41. Yet, West Indies won with 11 deliveries to spare.

NZone

18
Number of dot balls in Gayle's knock on Wednesday. This means his 100 not out came off 30 scoring shots. Besides 5 fours and 11 sixes, he took 14 singles

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