Gayle storm hits NatWest T20 Blast

Gayle storm hits NatWest T20 Blast: Chris Gayle yet again proved that he is the boss of Twenty 20 format as he smashed an unbeaten 151 during a fixture in NatWest T20 Blast for Somerset against Kent while chasing 228 at Taunton. However, his lone fight could not help his side to reach the target as Somerset lost narrowly to Kent by 3 runs.

Chase the target of 228 set by Kent, Somerset got off to a poor start with Trescothick and Trego getting out in the 4th over. After 4 overs, they had scored just 23 needing another 205 to win. Then began the outburst, an onslaught by Gayle as he moved to 41 off 23 balls from 11 in 10 balls by hitting the 6th over of innings’ bowled by Stevens for 20 runs. In the same over, he was dropped by Joe Deanly.

He brought up his fifty in 29 balls with a six and followed it with another six, four and six yielding 24 runs from the 10th over bowled by Cowdrey. He struck a couple of six in next over and continued hitting a boundary every over. With a single off last ball in 14th over, Gayle reached yet another century in Twnety20, which came in just 45 balls. He struck couple of fours in next over as required equation came down to 69 from 5 overs.

When 49 needed from 19 balls, Gayle lofted Haggett for a six. But the next balls returned just 4 runs as Somerset needed 39 in just 10 balls. Gayle never gave up the fight as he struck 6, 6, 4 and 6 in the four balls of the penultimate over bringing down 17 needing off last over.

Sohail Tanvir holed out on first ball at deep midwicket but the batsmen failed to cross over. Next batsman Overton took a single of the first ball he faced. Gayle struck the next ball in the air but it dropped from hands off the fielder and he picked up a couple. Gayle got a four on the next ball but missed to get bat on the penultimate ball. With 10 needed off last ball, Gayle could only send the ball out of the roof and complete his 150 as Somerset ended up 3 runs short off target.

Stats:

–> Chris Gayle scored his 15th century in Twenty20 format, easily the most by anyone else.

–> Chris Gayle became the first player to score two 150+ scores in Twnety20 format.

–> The score of 151 is the highest individual score for a batsman on losing end in Twenty20.

–> Chris Gayle has 5 century in T20 format coming while he was on losing end, the most by any other player.

–> Chris Gayle’s innings contained 15 sixes, the third most in a Twenty20 innings.

–> The match between Somerset and Kent was only the 7th match in Twenty20s yielded more than 450 runs.

–> Only the 7th time in Twenty20 which seen 2 centuries in the same match. The other centurion in the game was Sam Northeast who scored 114 in 58 balls for Kent.