Christopher Henry Gayle, ‘The Universe Boss,’ is the soul of T20 cricket. He is the man who contributed the most in making it the most eminent cricket format in the world. Chris Gayle had performed in the many T20 tournaments, but his best had come out in the Indian Premier League. If we talk about the personal brand of players in T20 cricket, then Chris Gayle bagged the No. 1 position on the list. He had hit the historic ton of 175* by just facing 66 deliveries in an innings. Chris Gayle hadn’t played too many memorable knocks for his country, but he had thumped much opposition in the different T20 leagues of the world. The rogue denotes him as a ruthless batsman who can prove a bad nightmare for any bowler on any day. For instance, check out his dominance in our analysis on IPL centuries that has been hit so far.
Initially, he used to play for Kolkata Knight Riders under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly but then in 2011, Royal Challengers Bangalore signed him for the season and never left him until the IPL 2020. He still holds the top five position in the chart of the leading runs scorers for the Bangalore based franchise. Later, Punjab Kings purchased him in the auction for the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League, and he started his new journey with them. Here are his top 5 knocks across all the seasons of IPL.
#1 175*(66) – RCB vs PWI in 2013
The peak of the Gayle Storm in the Indian Premier League was witnessed on April 23, 2013. In a match against Pune Warriors, Chris Gayle struck with 175*(66) and took RCB to the flying score of 263/5 in 20 overs. He had hit 13 fours and 17 sixes in his knock. In the first 7 overs, RCB had crossed the score of 100. Tilakaratne Dilshan was only doing the formalities on the other end by just giving a strike to the monster. Later, Pune Warriors came out to bat and rattled down by 9 wickets on a poor score of 133. In the end, RCB won the match by 130 runs.
#2 128*(62) – RCB vs DD in 2012
Chris Gayle had scored his third daddy hundred against Delhi Daredevils in 2012. This was Chris Gayle’s year, where he smashed 733 runs in the season and won the orange cap at the end. He was on his best in the game for RCB; he had scored 128* in 62 deliveries. The RCB had posted a mammoth score of 215/1. DD put their all into the game, but they lacked the victory by 21 runs. Chris Gayle was the prime asset for RCB, especially in the season of IPL 2012.
#3 117(57) – RCB vs PBKS in 2015
Chris Gayle had scored the fourth century of his career against the mediocre line-up of Kings XI Punjab in 2015. He had smashed 117 runs in 57 balls and took on every bowler of the Punjab bowling unit. With the assistance of Chris Gayle, RCB had posted the score of 226/3 in 20 overs. At the same time, they were dominant in the same way with the ball in the second innings and won the match by the margin of 138 runs.
#4 104*(63) – PBKS vs SRH in 2018
Gayle scored his 6th century of the Indian Premier League while playing for Punjab Kings in 2018. In the first met-up with the solid Sunrisers Hyderabad, RCB scored 193/4 with the help of the knocks from Chris Gayle & Karun Nair. Gayle scored 1 four & 11 sixes and played with a strike rate of 165.08. While chasing, SRH batters failed to chase down the score and lost the encounter by 15 runs. Watch the video of the innings here.
#5 102*(55) – RCB vs KKR in 2011
RCB rocked Kolkata Knight Riders in a league encounter of IPL 2011. Batting first, Gautam Gambhir’s KKR scored 171/5 in 20 overs, but none of the scores could withstand the devastating Gayle storm. Chris Gayle smacked 102* in just 55 balls, had a thunderous strike rate of 185.45, and delivered the best piece of batting for his team. While in the end, RCB wrapped up the match with a dominant 9 wicket win over Kolkata.
Read now: What makes Chris Gayle a Super Power!!!
