Flashback: Chris Gayle’s 175 mayhem against PWI in IPL 2013
The 23rd April will forever remain a glorious date for the Royal Challengers Bangalore fans and it is due to the fact that the Universe Boss, Chris Gayle went berserk at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The explosive hitter from Caribbean is arguably one of the greatest batters to ever grace the sport.
Not just the fans but even the fielders of the rival side in the contest would turn spectators as the ball would sail away on numerous occasions. This was what Gayle precisely did in one of the matches between RCB and Pune Warriors India (PWI) in the IPL 2013 season.
Put to bat first by the PWI skipper Aaron Finch, Gayle opened the innings with Sri Lanka great Tillakaratne Dilshan. What followed was absolute carnage throughout the ground as the West Indies legend swiftly hit the ground running and wasted no time in the T20 contest.
Battering the rival bowlers left, right and centre, PWI just did not have any answer to Gayle’s mayhem. The southpaw blitzed the fastest hundred in the shortest format scoring it in mere 30 balls and eventually concluded the innings with a mammoth score of an unbeaten 175 from just 66 deliveries. The massive knock included 17 maximums and 13 boundaries at an aggressive strike rate of 265.15.
Virat Kohli-led RCB registered the highest total ever scored in the history of the league with 263 runs on the board. Luke Wright and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were the only two bowlers from the PWI side with an economy under 10 as the rest of the bowlers registered economies over 15.
Skipper Aaron Finch just took the ball for a single over and was sent back with 29 runs which included four sixes by the explosive batter. That was not all, Gayle also showed why he was the boss even with the ball as scalped two wickets in his one over and gave mere five runs. RCB won the contest by a massive 130 runs as PWI bundled out for just 133 runs in their chase for the highest score. No surprises, Gayle was adjudged Player of the Match for his sensational knock.
