Chris Gayle played in his first match of IPL 2020 for Kings XI Punjab and contributed a brilliant fifty as well as sharing a match-changing partnership of 93 with KL Rahul as KXIP defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore in a tense eight-wicket win in Sharjah. For Gayle, this continued the trend where he has started the IPL on a great note.
With over 10,000 runs in T20s as well as having the most centuries and sixes in the format, it is a massive surprise that Chris Gayle was playing his first match of IPL 2020 for Kings XI Punjab in the clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Sharjah. Fitness issues as well as team composition issues meant that the self-proclaimed ‘Universe Boss’ had to sit out for some of the games. However, on his first match in IPL 2020, Chris Gayle showed his class and he smashed 53 off 45 balls and the knock included one four and five big sixes as he shared a partnership of 93 with KL Rahul, who also hammered 61 off 49 balls. Kings XI Punjab finally snapped their losing streak and won a tense match against Royal Challengers Bangalore by eight wickets off the last ball.
For Gayle, this continued his magnificent trend of starting an Indian Premier League season well. In 12 editions of the Indian Premier League that Gayle has featured in, the left-hander has consistently started off with a big score to set the tone for the tournament. In his first appearance in 2009, Gayle just made 10 against Deccan Chargers but since then, he has been consistency personified.
Great numbers
In IPL 2010, he started his campaign with a brilliant 75 against Mumbai Indians but his legendary quotient went up to another level when he blasted 102 off 55 balls for Royal Challengers Bangalore against his former club Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2011. In IPL 2012, he failed again but in the 2013 edition, Gayle hammered 92 off 58 against the Mumbai Indians.
After failing in IPL 2014 with 20 against Kings XI Punjab, Gayle blasted 96 off 56 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2015. However, in his last three editions for Kings XI Punjab, Chris Gayle has smashed three consecutive fifties in his first match of the IPL season.
In 12 editions of when he has played the first match of the season, Gayle has scored a total of 622 runs at an average of 69 and a strike rate of over 150.
After the match, Gayle said that he will now stake a claim to be included in the side for IPL 2021 as well. “I thought I had it in the bag but stranger things have happened in cricket. It was a good innings, first in IPL and now I can make myself available for 2021. I can get out of the bubble now and go,” Gayle said.
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 "Chris Gayle 53 vs RCB")
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