Captain Gayle leads Windies with magnificent century
West Indies captain Chris Gayle led from the front with a courageous, unbeaten century to guide the team to 278-7 in the second innings on the fourth day of the 2nd Test against New Zealand at McLean Park, Napier.This gives the Windies an overall lead of 214 runs going into what promises to be a thrilling final day of this two-match series on Tuesday. The first match was affected by rain and ended in a draw.
Gayle, the tall, powerful left-hander is on 146 not out – his eighth Test century. He batted the entire day – and has so far faced 325 balls, hit 13 fours and six big sixes. When Gayle made 88 he reached 5 000 runs in Test cricket. Brendan Nash, who made 74 in the first innings, followed up with a patient 65 off 172 balls in a fifth wicket stand of 124 with the captain.
Gayle said he still has work to do and will be looking to progress on Tuesday.
"I will be looking to come back tomorrow and push on to see how many more I can get. We still have three wickets in hand so I will be looking for as many as possible," said the 29-year-old. "We would probably look first, for another 50 runs and build from that. The pitch is still good for batting so we won’t be taking anything for granted."
Gayle is usually an attacking batsman, but changed his natural style. He explained why.
"I had to make the adjustment from my natural attacking game. The team required it. One thing I am delighted about is that I played the patient role, making them [New Zealand] come to me as much as possible," he said.
"This is the final Test match and both teams will be looking for victory and it will be a long, hard day. We have the runs on the board and when it comes our time to bowl in the second innings we will be looking to knock over a few [batsmen] early and attack from there."
First ball on Tuesday is at noon (Monday at 7 pm Eastern Caribbean Time/6 pm Jamaica Time).