Putting #45 Gayle Under Pressure Like in the First Match?

Bowman Gayle with lights reflected

Bowman Gayle 2001-16

There is something about Chris Gayle and David Bowman from 2001 A Space Odyssey; the teeth as well as eyes.

The New Meaning of Club Cricket – RCB v NSW CLT20

The six foot three inch, colossus, Christopher  Henry Gayle, his club shaved clean of decals bludgeoned the New South Wales Blues attack until they were cudgled senseless with an innings of 92 in 41 balls brimful of 8 vertiginous  6s and 8 effortless fours.

Gayle was joined in knightly fellowship by the more orthodox but no less merciless sidesman, Virat Kholi, who prefers the long sword to Gayle’s mace with which to dispatch an opponent and who duly pierced ten fours and three sixes in a 49 ball innings of 84 not out.  

This strike-force  enabled the Royal Challengers Bangalore for a second match in a row to meet the quest to hunt down a score of more than ten runs an over  and to do so with nine balls to spare.

Once again, for NSW, the gauntlet had been thrown down by that other clubman, the diminutive 5ft 7in David Warner who commanded an innings of 123 not out with eleven sixes and six fours battered in only 68 balls. 

T20 has developed rapidly, but in the shape of Gayle and Warner this order in the chivalry of cricket has surely found its apogee: tiltyard strength that maximizes the combination of bat-speed and weight, a solid base from which to swing as well timed as a golfer and a mental approach that mimics that of the best baseball hitters.

It also brings a new meaning to ‘club cricket’.

CLT20 Ist Semi Final: NSW Blues 203 – 2 lost to RCB 204 – 4 (18.3 overs)