A thunderstorm the previous night was followed by a Gayle force yesterday in Canberra, Australia, as powerful West Indies opener Chris Gayle blasted the Zimbabwe bowlers away in a multiple record performance. Gayle smashed the highest ever World Cup score of 215 and Marlon Samuels got an unbeaten 133 to lead the West Indies to an imposing 372- 2.
Set a revised target of 363 runs off 48 overs, Zimbabwe was bowled out for 289–losing by 73 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method. Leading their fight was Sean Williams with a well-crafted 76 off 61 balls with nine fours. Craig Ervine made 52 off 41 including seven fours and a six and Brendon Taylor 37 off 48 balls.
For good measure, Man-of-the- Match Gayle took two wickets and a catch, while Jerome Taylor nabbed 3-38 and skipper Jason Holder 3- 48. It took a big effort by the ground staff to get the facility in shape for a prompt start. A storm struck Canberra the night before, and the curator and some other members of staff left their homes and headed to the ground in the dead of the night to secure it.
Holder won his seventh toss and decided to take first strike. Tinashe Panyangara gave Zimbabwe the perfect start bowling Dwayne Smith with the second ball of the match but it was to be the only success until the final ball of the innings. Gayle was joined by Marlon Samuels and the southpaw decided to hit his way into form.
He was lucky to survive an lbw appeal from Panyangara also in the first over but rode his luck to get West Indies on the way. As his innings progressed, he started to warm to the task and the ball found its way into the middle of the bat, before reaching the stands. He brought up his half century off 51 balls with four fours and two sixes and together with Samuels, posted the West Indies 100 in the 24th over.
Gayle was looking ominous just as the rain that was hovering over the ground and continued to play some splendid shots. In the process, he passed 9,000 runs in ODIs–the second West Indian to reach the mark behind Brian Lara's 10,405. The duo continued to plunder the Zimbabweans and Samuels brought up his 26th ODI half century off 95 balls with four fours.
Gayle ended a two-year century drought in ODI, getting to his 22nd ODI hundred off 105 balls with five sixes and five fours. It was his second World Cup ton after his 119 against Kenya at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. After reaching the landmark, Gayle went on the rampage and brought up his 150 off 126 balls with ten sixes and six fours.
It marked his fourth score of over 150 and all were scored against African opposition–two against Zimbabwe, one against South Africa and one against Kenya. Next stop was Viv Richards' 181 versus Sri Lanka, which stood as the highest World Cup score for the West Indies.
Gayle blew past that and tumbled South Africa's Gary Kirsten's 188 and became the holder of the highest score in World Cup cricket. He was not done with Richards, as he moved past his 189 not out against England, which was the highest ODI score by a West Indian. It was then on to his first double century in ODIs and he became the fourth batsman and first West Indian to achieve this.
Lost in all this was an excellent, well thought out century by Samuels. He scored his ton off 143 balls with nine hits to the fence. The two hammered the Africans and rattled up 152 runs from the last ten overs. They eclipsed the West Indies highest ever ODI score of 360 for four against Sri Lanka and when Gayle was finally dismissed for 215 off the last ball, the score read 372 for one off 50 overs Gayle finished on 215 off 147 balls with ten fours and 16 sixes.
He equalled the highest number of sixes in an ODI innings, with AB deVilliers. Gayle faced 22 balls in the 90s while he searched for his century and with that out the way, his second century came off only 33 balls. Samuels finally counted 133 not out off 156 balls with 11 fours and three sixes.