Legendary West Indies batsman Chris Gayle on Monday became the first cricketer in the world to reach a whopping 14,000 runs in the shortest format of the game.
Gayle achieved the landmark with a match-winning half-century against Australia in the 3rd T20I, which helped West Indies beat the visitors by six wickets and seal the five-match series.
The 42-year-old cricketer registered the feat in style as he hit Australian spinner Adam Zampa for a six in the ninth over of the second innings. Gayle also scored a quick 67 off 38 balls to help his side win the match and seal the five-match series 3-0.
This was Gayle’s first T20I half century since 2016 and that ended up to be a record breaking knock. Gayle currently has 14038 runs in 431 T20 matches. The next best in the list of most runs in T20s is Kieron Pollard, who has 10836 runs in 545 matches.
Only four cricketers – Gayle was the first – have scored more than 10000 runs in T20 cricket. Gayle also has a record 22 T20 hundreds to his name in the shortest format.
Accepting the award for player of the match, Gayle recommended people shouldn’t watch the statistics too closely but “just respect the Universe Boss.”
“It’s a great journey. I’m so happy and so pleased to get a series win. I just want to commend stand-in captain Pooran for winning a fantastic series against a great team,” Gayle said.
Gayle said his main focus was on the T20 World Cup starting in October in the United Arab Emirates, when he’ll be 42.
“You all knew I was struggling with the bat and to be able to get some runs was pleasing.”
Earlier opting to bat first, Australia scored just 141 runs despite a good start. Matthew Wade and skipper Aaron Finch stitched a 41-run stand for the first wicket in five overs.
However, the visitors kept losing wickets at regular intervals as the batsmen never really looked comfortable during the innings.