Did Rohit Sharma’s double hundred inspire Chris Gayle?

Did Rohit Sharma’s double hundred inspire Chris Gayle?:

Until today the record of scoring double hundreds in ODI cricket was reserved with the Indians. First the superman Sachin Tendulkar broke the jinx and showed the world that scoring 200 was a possible task even in ODI cricket on the 24^th February, 2010. West Indies were on the receiving end when it happened for the second time Virender Shewag struck 219.

Rohit Sharma in his full flow was unmanageable for the Australian bowlers and could not dismiss him before he made himself the third Indian and batsman to hit an ODI double century (209). On another occasion playing Sri Lanka in India Rohit Sharma did it again, reached the triple figures twice in his innings and he did not fall over, rather continued toiling the bowlers, mauled them and scored 264 in that knock. This by far remains the best ODI score by a batsman.

When today playing against Zimbabwe Chris Gayle stormed his first ODI double (215) and the first by any batsman in world cup history, he shattered many records along with the morale of Zimbabwe bowlers. (List of Records broken by Chris Gayle and West Indies today against Zimbabwe)

Gayle after his thunderbolt innings said he wanted to score the double century since Rohit Sharma scored his second; it was one of those things that was running at the back of his mind. Heading into the world cup, he has not had a very good run and so was under immense pressure to perform. And when you are Christopher Henry Gayle this is how you respond to pressure of performance.

Go out there smack the bowlers, be ruthless and hit an ODI double century. Gayle said, “I am very happy to get this first double-hundred and ever since Rohit got two (ODI double-hundreds), I have been hounded to get one as well.”

“I said ‘you can’t be serious?’ I just want to thank god for this knock. I was under pressure to score runs and I kept getting messages from Twitter and on my cell phone. I have never felt this kind of pressure but in the end, I am sure I gave them something to talk about.”

He looked cautious in his approach at the start when the ball did a bit, and unlike his usual tendency to go after the bowler’s right from the start, cut down the instinct waited for the ball to get old, lose its shine and then go for the kill and once he did the result what we are all discussing.

“It was a bit slow at the start, not to mention that it was keeping low. I just tried to take the bull by the horns and hang out there and try and build an innings. After a while I was able to pick a bowler to target and then, in the end, I was out off the last ball.”

“A lot of time people don’t know what you are going through as I had some issues with injuries. I am also not getting any younger so age is definitely catching up on me,” he further said.

One of the best ways for a cricketer to stop all the criticism is to let the bat do the talking and he has done exactly that. Gayle concluded saying, “Overall, I am really happy and I just want to try and build on this as much as possible. Want to build on this momentum and move ahead as we look towards the South Africa game.”

Chris Gayle is now the only batsman in cricket history to have a Triple hundred in test matches and a double hundred for his name in ODI cricket and if we count his unbelievable 175 in the IPL it makes it an even more competitive record. It will not take the world long to hail him as a legend.