The flamboyant Windies opener, Chris Gayle re-wrote the record books as he became the first cricketer to hit 500 international sixes. He also became the second Windies cricketer to go past the landmark of 10,000 ODI runs. He did it during the 4th ODI against England at St George’s, Grenada.
Gayle smashed 162 off 97 balls with the help of 14 sixes and 11 fours. Chasing a mammoth 419 to win, the onus was on him to get them as close as possible. He did that but could not take Windies over the line as they lost the match by 29 runs. From England, it was Jos Buttler (150) and Eoin Morgan (103) who took them to the humungous total.
Talking about Buttler’s knock, Gayle said, “Jos Buttler is superb. He is one of the best strikers in world cricket today. He’s not close to the Universe Boss though.”
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It was Buttler who hit an incredible 150 off 77 balls to help England post 418. However, the English leg-spinner, Adil Rashid who scalped four wickets in five balls as England resisted a determined West Indies effort to claim a 29-run victory in a high-scoring game on Wednesday.
Talking about the same during the post-match presentation, Buttler said, “It was an incredible game of cricket. We are delighted that we got the win. We talked on the bench about the right and left combination, that was the reason I went up the order. The guys work hard on range hitting. We have a powerful batting line-up and we are doing well. It has been a competitive series and hopefully, we will have a good last match too.”
Responding to the tourists’ mammoth total of 418 for six, the highest ever in an ODI in the Caribbean, the hosts were set on course by a rampaging 162 off 97 balls by Gayle. They were having decent chances of chasing the target down ahead of the 48th over when Rashid broke an 88-run seventh-wicket partnership between Carlos Brathwaite and Ashley Nurse. He then ran through the tail –- taking the last three wickets in the next four balls –- to finish with figures of five for 85 off his allotted ten overs.
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West Indies’ total of 389 was their highest-ever in ODIs but it will be of little consolation given the final capitulation which saw the last four wickets falling at the same score to leave England with an unassailable 2-1 lead going into the final game of the five-match series on Saturday in St Lucia.
Their fourth-wicket partnership of 204 between Buttler and Morgan came in less than 21 overs and followed an excellent comeback knock of 82 by Alex Hales at the top of the order. Taking about the same, Morgan said, “We were fortunate with that spell from Adil to get us over the line. I thought the West Indies played so well and gave it their all. A lot of people talk of them being (rated) number nine in the world, but there’s not a huge difference between the two teams.”
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Just a week after the West Indies posted a new record tally of 23 sixes for ODI innings, England surpassed that number by one, Buttler thrashing Brathwaite for another huge hit over deep midwicket before the big all-rounder bowled him with the next delivery in the final over of the innings.
England bludgeoned 154 runs off the last ten overs with Buttler accounting for 105 of those in a withering display of power-hitting.
Brief scores:
England 418 for 6 (Buttler 150, Morgan 103, Hales 82, Bairstow 56) beat West Indies 389 (Gayle 162, Bravo 61, Brathwaite 50, Rashid 5-85, Wood 4-60) by 29 runs
