The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket

Calculated Gayle assault halts SRH's bowling juggernaut

Thu, Apr 19, '18

 

Chris Gayle

If it is a century from Chris Gayle, it usually means one of two things. Either he blazes through to the milestone with a barrage of big hits at the start or he makes up for a sluggish beginning with by going bonkers later in his innings. In both cases, he ends up with a superior strike rate immaterial of the start. However, it was a different story that unfolded off Gayle's bat against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Coming into this game against SRH, with all their bowlers possessing an economy rate of less than eight an over, and accounting 23 wickets between them, there was a clear challenge thrown at Kings XI Punjab - whether their power-packed top order would yield the kind of results that it is known for, against a quality bowling attack? That answer came via Gayle's bat but it wasn't the kind of slam-bang solution that is generally associated with him.

The Mohali pitch for this game was unlike the one on offer against CSK, where KXIP were looking good for a 220-plus total but eventually ended up with 197, mainly because they couldn't capitalise on the start provided by Gayle and KL Rahul. In this game, the wicket appeared very tricky - some deliveries kept low and it wasn't coming on to the bat as much as the batsmen would have liked.

 

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