World Cup 2015 Match 15 West Indies v Zimbabwe review: Gayle storm blows away Zimbabwe

World Cup 2015 Match 15 West Indies v Zimbabwe review: Gayle storm blows away Zimbabwe:

Today was the day when the sleeping giant awoke and destroyed whatever came in his path. West Indies took on Zimbabwe at Canberra and batted first on a wonderful pitch.
West Indies got off to a bad start losing Dwayne Smith to Panyangara on the 2nd ball of the first over. Little did the Zimbabwean bowlers know that that would be the only happiness that they are going to get in that innings. Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels got together and slowly got the Windies innings back on the track. The way Chris Gayle batted was great to watch because he applied himself and played dot balls rather than going all out on the bowlers. His strategy paid off as he scored his first century in 600 days off 105 balls. Meanwhile Samuels was content on giving the strike to Gayle and was playing in singles and doubles. Once Gayle got to the 100, the flood gates to the hell opened on the Zimbabwean bowlers. Gayle began assaulting each and every bowler with disregard. He hit 16 sixes and 10 fours in total and eventually he became the 4th batsman and 1st non-Indian batsman to score a double century in World cup cricket. His next 100 came off just 33 balls and his double century was the fastest. He broke a slew of records on the way and West Indies ended up making 372/2 after their 50 overs ended. This was the highest partnership for any wicket and the highest score by the West Indies ever. Marlon Samuels scored 133* and Gayle got out for 215 runs off the last ball.

The Zimbabwean innings started after a 20 min rain delay giving them 363 runs to chase in 48 overs. The chase was out of question, but it became a question of will and survival for the Zimbabwe players. But only Brendan Taylor(37), Sean Williams (76) and Craig Ervine (52) contributed to the cause. Zimbabwe lost the match by 73 runs via D/L  method.
In all it was just the worst day for Zimbabwe, as they faced an in-form Chris Gayle who blew them away in his whirlwind innings.

Chris Gayle got the Man of the match for his record shattering 215.

Brief Scores:
West Indies 372/2 (C Gayle 215, M Samuels 133; T Panyangara 1/82) defeated Zimbabwe 289/10 44.3 overs (S Williams 76, C Ervine 52; J Taylor 3/38) by 73 runs via D/L method.

(Also read List of Records broken by Chris Gayle and West Indies today against Zimbabwe)