The Perfect Storm

Bangalores Chris Gayle hits 46-ball hundred his second in IPL IV to blow away Punjab

There8217;s a common phrase back home in Jamaica,one that is spoken in the Patois tongue that says: 8220;Come wid yu two long han.8221; In English,it means to arrive somewhere empty-handed. Chris Gayle,unpicked and rejected during the January auction before the fourth edition of the IPL,arrived on Bangalore soil with two long hands. But during his time with his new IPL franchise,the Bangalore Royal Challengers,Gayle has used those rejected limbs to cause much carnage and destruction. Those long hands,stuffed with trophies and awards,aren8217;t so empty anymore.

On Friday,against the extremely hapless Kings XI Punjab,those iron-like hands had the most tremendous impact on any given T20 match,as Gayle plundered with both bat and ball. After having destroyed the Punjab bowling attack to bludgeon nine sixes while scoring a 46-ball century his second in four IPL matches this season Gayle laughed,joked and danced his way to three wickets,claiming the crucial wickets of Paul Valthaty and Dinesh Karthik,and the not-so-important one of Piyush Chawla.

And thanks to Gayle8217;s 107 primarily,and also his 3/21,Bangalore won their fourth game in a row after having posted 205 in the first innings,while Punjab succumbed to their fourth successive loss crashing out for just 13 runs more than Gayle8217;s individual total losing by an embarrasing 85 runs. Adam Gilchrist,the losing captain,could only smile through it all,probably wondering if it could have been any different had he chosen to bat first after he won the toss. But as the day would pan out,the toss would be the only thing that Gilchrist would be lucky at,and even at that,choosing the field first was clearly the wrong choice.

Ryan Harris,the best of the Punjab bowlers,did well to bowl five dot balls to Gayle in the second over of the game,but the burly Jamaican would not be kept quiet for more than a solitary ball after that. The West Indian opened his six hitting account by hammering Harris8217;s first two deliveries of the fourth over out of the Chinnaswamy Stadium,before clobbering that last two balls for rocket-like boundaries. Harris would be seen smiling later,when two of his Punjab collegaues 8212; Praveen Kumar and Luv Ablish 8212; were given the two-sixes-of-first-two-balls treatment.

All smiles

In fact,there were more smiles than drooped shoulders during the Gayle blitz. Gilchrist was often seen chuckling,while the bowlers all of them didn8217;t as much as dare to scream 8216;catch it8217; while the ball made its way to the adjacent Cubbon Park. Bangalore8217;s Virat Kohli too,who was lucky to be in the middle after his thick outside edge wasn8217;t heard by umpire Russell Tiffin,shared a 100-run stand with his Jamaican colleague,out of which he poked less than one-fourth the runs. The show came to an end when Gayle mistimed a slog sweep of Chawla in the 14th over,but unfortunately for Punjab,it was only the end of the batting stint.

While all eyes were peeled on Gilchrist during the chase,his first ball run-out forced those pupils to shy behind the eyelids permanently. For what followed after that pushed the borders of absurdity. Abhishek Nayar was promoted to three,and Punjab soon found themselves on 5/2.

Valthaty offered some resistance with 21,but as he chipped Gayle harmlessly to square-leg,Gayle started the first of his scintillating dance moves. Gayle the day with a very Jamaican Chuk-Chuk train move,exposing each of his shining white teeth to the world. In Patois,it8217;s called 8221;Gi laugh fi peas soup8221;. As the English translation would suggest,8217;having a good time8217; is but second nature to the mischievous Jamaican.