Chris Gayle's Juggernaut Ton Leaves Skipper Ashwin Speechless
News3 min read
Chris Gayle's 104 runs off 63 balls in the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad left the KXIP skipper speechless. This is Gayle's sixth hundred in the IPL. Ashwin said that he could not find the right words to describe the great innings. This Jamaican player guided the KXIP towards the victory to stop the saga of SRH victory. His unbeaten 104 knock off 63 balls made KXIP register their third victory in the IPL at Mohali yesterday by 15 runs against SRH. He did not play two initial games this IPL but registered a half-century against CSK. He did his 21st century in the T20S at a strike rate above 165.
The KXIP skipper was all in praise of Gayle. Speaking to the press, he said that "Chris batted beautifully and took it away from them. It is more about who we play and what works best. It is about doing well on the Powerplay. For example, Mohit vs Dhawan was a clean match-up. It was extremely pleasing to see the crowd cheering us, we have never seen this in Mohali. Chris entertained them. One word won't be enough to describe his knock. His style is hard to replicate, when it comes off, it is hard to match it."
He thrashed Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the first spell and attacked Rashid Khan's leg-spin to hit his memorable knock. "This was a complete performance. We could have conceded 10 runs lesser to work on the net run rate, but it did not happen but we are still happy. We thought giving them a reasonable score to chase is something we could handle at the back end," the skipper of the winning team added.
He did not pick a wicket in this game. KXIP reached the third position in the points table with six points and the KKR were in top position followed by SRH with six points each. The KKR attained the top position with the better run rate than the other teams. Gayle slammed 11 sixes in this game.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad bowler Sidharth Kaul said that "We had plans for Chris and had aimed to bowl in the right areas to keep in check but he outplayed us. His plans were executed in a better manner,"
"The margin of the loss was not that big. It was just 15 runs. We are still positive and one loss won't damage our confidence. We would re-group and win the coming games," he added.
"Rashid bhai had been our main bowler in previous matches. Unfortunately, he was expensive today in his initial overs. We were aiming to get Gayle's wicket through Bhuvi Paaji, Chris Jordan and myself. And we thought Rashid Bhai could bowl later after Gayle falls. However, he remained unbeaten and crushed our plans," said Siddharth Kaul about the replacement of Billy Stanlake by another tall speedster Chris Jordan.
The SRH skipper Kane Williamson scored 54 in this game but could not win the cause. He said to the press that "Hats-off to Chris Gayle for his stunning innings. We know what he can do. This wicket was not a free-flowing wicket. We can learn a few things from the way they bowled. They bowled a touch short, we were much fuller. Shikhar has been hitting the ball beautifully, he is got a role to play. Tonight, our loss wasn't because of lack of effort. The lengths they bowled was superb, they used the big boundaries well. Now, we've to just look forward to the next game. There's been a clear pattern of play we're looking to execute, we did not do that tonight," said this new skipper of SRH.
The KXIP has crossed the record of highest score posted by Mumbai Indians and added 193 runs. The SRH was called as one of the strongest teams so far but it lacks consistent batsmen except for Shikhar Dhawan. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the most economical bowler in this game with 1 wicket under his belt by conceding 25 balls off 4 overs.
Rashid Khan has been dangerous in the previous game but conceded four sixes in his spell.
Chris Gayle was awarded man of the match of this game and he dedicated his knock as his birthday gift to his daughter.
Chris Gayleipl
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Deeksha Gogia
Hello, This is Deeksha & I am Author here at Cricgully. I will be covering Indian Cricket Team News & Updates.
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