Reliving Chris Gayle's murderous 175 that stunned the cricket world

Reliving Chris Gayle’s murderous 175 that stunned the cricket world: April 23, 2013 was a day when several cricketing records got smashed. It was a day when Christopher Henry Gayle the marauding run machine from Jamaica was in his most tigerish mood and the woebegone victims were the hapless Pune Warriors India who was hit by the bolt from the blue, that is the Gayle storm! Let’s relive his best innings on his birthday!

Breaking records is more like a passionate hobby for this West Indian power hitter. Even the best of bowlers can face tumultuous times when the swashbuckling Gayle finds his groove. His 175 runs off 66-ball innings is Chris Gayle thrashed and decimated all of the opposition bowlers mercilessly and reached his 100 in 30 balls, yes you read it right, 30 balls!! Not one bowler was spared and every delivery was carted to a different part of the ground. Mitchell Marsh suffered the most having conceded 29 runs in the fifth over of the game.

This kind of destruction was unheard of in the cricket world before, hitherto seen only in the likes of cheat codes powered games like EA Cricket 07. Every bowler’s deliveries got bludgeoned invariably and there was a point of time when Aaron Finch was forced to come on and bowl. Gayle registered strike rates of over 200 against four of PWI’s bowlers.

Powered by Gayle’s heroics RCB’s total reached 263, the highest ever in a T20 game. The result of the game from then on was very much predictable and as expected PWI lost their way losing 4 of their key wickets inside the first 6 overs. They eventually succumbed to an embarrassing defeat. Their defeat was the second-biggest in terms of runs in the IPL’s six seasons. This just goes to show how terrorizing Gayle can be and speaks volumes of the magnitude of impact he had on the match.

Let’s look at some of the records that Gayle broke:

1. Gayle’s 175 not out is the highest individual score in all Twenty20 matches, while Royal Challengers’ total of 263 is the highest by any team. This is only the third occasion a batsman has scored 150 or more in an innings – the previous ones were by Brendon McCullum (158 not out in IPL’s opening game in 2008) and Graham Napier (152 not out for Essex against Sussex in June 2008).

Also Read: Top 10 Highest individual scores in Twenty20 cricket

2. Over the course of his innings, Gayle struck 17 sixes, the most in an innings in Twenty20 matches; the previous record was 16, by Graham Napier when he scored that unbeaten 152. That also makes him the only player to score 100 runs in sixes alone in a T20 innings. The previous-highest in the IPL was McCullum’s 13 during his unbeaten 158. He also struck 13 fours, which means 154 runs were scored in fours and sixes, the most in a T20 innings. The previous-best was by Napier, 136 (16 sixes and 10 fours). Gayle’s also the only batsman to twice score a century of runs in fours and sixes in 20 overs cricket.

3. Gayle’s 11 centuries in this format is more than twice that of the next-highest, David Warner and McCullum who have five each. In the IPL alone he has four hundreds, twice as many as the next-best.

4. Gayle scored 142 more than the second-highest in the innings, Dilshan (33). This is the highest difference in runs between the top scorer and the next-best in an innings.