Gayle slams fastest ODI double century
February 24, 2015 01:33 pm
Chris Gayle smashed his way into the record books with a devastating double century off 138 balls vs Zimbabwe in a Pool B World Cup 2015 fixture on Tuesday. This is the fastest double ton in One-Day Internationals, beating Virender Sehwag’s knock off 140 balls.
Gayle became the fourth batsman - after Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Rohit Sharma - to score a double century in the history of ODIs. The West Indian demolisher has achieved this feat exactly five years after Sachin Tendulkar scored the first-ever ODI double ton vs South Africa in Gwalior.
Gayle was dismissed off the last ball of the West Indies innings, finishing on 215 off 147 balls - the highest individual score in World Cups. His swashbuckling knock included 10 fours and a record-levelling 16 sixes.
After a prolonged lean patch with the bat, the Windies opening batsman recaptured his menacing form as he sent the Zimbabwean bowlers on a leather hunt. During the course of this knock, Gayle also brought up 9,000 ODI runs.
Gayle had recently come in for a lot of criticism for continued failure with the bat. Even the West Indies Cricket Board president Dave Cameron had created a furore by retweeting a fan who had criticised Gayle’s poor form on twitter. Ahead of this fixture, skipper Jason Holder had said that a big knock from Gayle was coming soon and the big man repaid his young captain’s faith in great style and authority. - ndtv