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Gayle walks off in style after sizzling knock

August 14, 2019 22:17 IST

Chris Gayle

IMAGE: West Indies batting great Chris Gayle smashed 72 runs off 41 balls in the third ODI against India on Wednesday. Photograph: BCCI/Twitter

Chris Gayle may have played his last international game given the theatrics by cricket's showman and the send-off accorded by the Indian players at the end of a typically thunderous innings in the third ODI against India, at Queen's Park Oval, in Port of Spain, on Wednesday.

 

Playing as he always does, he smashed 72 runs off 41 balls, punishing the Indian bowlers with five sixes and four boundaries.

- SCORECARD

After hitting one off Khaleel Ahmed straight to visiting skipper Kohli, under whom he played at Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, he smiled as the Indian players shook hands with him and joined him in his typical jig.

Gayle threw his bat in the air, put his helmet on top of it and walked off the field. He then hurled the helmet up in the air and caught it while approaching the boundary ropes even as the West Indian camp gave him a standing ovation.

In an entertaining ODI career, Gayle competed in 301 matches and accumulated 10,480 runs, including 25 centuries and 54 fifties.

In 103 Tests, he scored 7,214 runs, including 15 centuries.

Having not played Test cricket for many years, he wanted to turn out for one last Test when India plays the series-opener in Jamaica after the ODI series, but the selectors did not name him in the West Indies squad.

He also did not play in the preceding three-match Twenty20 series.

Gayle also experimented with his jersey number, sporting '301'.

He is now the most-capped West Indies player in ODIs. The big-hitting opener went past Brian Lara's mark of 299 ODIs during the second ODI of the ongoing series on Sunday.