Chris Gayle aka the ‘Universe Boss’ showed his exceptional muscle power in Dubai as he helped his team Karachi Kings win the 20th match of Pakistan Super League 2016 against Islamabad United. The whole world is cognizant of the ability of the West Indian giant to hit sixes. No one can match his talent when it comes to whacking the ball out of the park. On February 26th, he put up a similar show.
In a rain-curtailed match, Misbah-ul-Haq led Islamabad United scored 123 runs in 15 overs with 3 wickets in hand, thanks to opener Dwyane Smith’s quickfire of 49. With over 8 runs required per over, the Kumar Sangakkara-led Karachi Kings needed a fiery start to the innings.
Gayle opened the innings alongside Pakistan opener Babar Azam. They got off to a flier, scoring at a rate of 9 runs per over. At the end of 5th over, Karachi had already scored 45 for no loss with Gayle batting on 26 from 12 balls. But he was yet to unleash his wrath on Saeed Ajmal who was introduced into the attack to get the run rate under control.
Azam worked the ball towards square leg for a single which seemed like a sensible thing to do when Gayle was attacking. Ajmal came round the wicket to Gayle trying to dart the ball onto his wickets but he literally went a step ahead of him to smash the ball over his head for a gigantic six. He danced down the wicket and put the ball exactly where he wanted as Danny Morrison in the commentary box went all berserk.
5.2 SIX! Saeed Ajmal to Chris Gayle!
watch https://t.co/E2ys92cdft#IUvKK #HBLPSL #AbKhelJamayGa pic.twitter.com/X3CqXZnKlW— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) February 26, 2017
Ajmal went back as Gayle geared up for another maximum. This time he stayed in his crease, going down on one knee and dragged the ball from off stump to midwicket boundary with brute force. But, the humiliation did not end yet for Ajmal, he had to go back and bowl to him again.
5.3 SIX! Saeed Ajmal to Chris Gayle!
watch https://t.co/E2ys92cdft#IUvKK #HBLPSL #AbKhelJamayGa pic.twitter.com/szVRdOkNC2— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) February 26, 2017
Here comes the third ball. Gayle came down the wicket once more and struck the ball in front of the square into the empty stands; he had scored 18 runs from 3 balls faced from Ajmal. The ‘Universe Boss’ had reached 44 from 16 balls with a strike rate over 250.
5.4 SIX! Saeed Ajmal to Chris Gayle!
watch https://t.co/E2ys92cdft#IUvKK #HBLPSL #AbKhelJamayGa pic.twitter.com/Aa0G0XSdGb— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) February 26, 2017
Everyone wanted Gayle to carry on and blast a few more balls back to the stands but Ajmal got his consolation prize at the end. After bowling a dot ball Ajmal bowled the last one wide of off stump as Gayle started his dance down the wicket, he could not middle the ball and it went into the hands of Mohammad Irfan at short third man.
5.6 OUT! Saeed Ajmal to Chris Gayle!
watch https://t.co/E2ys92cdft#IUvKK #HBLPSL #AbKhelJamayGa pic.twitter.com/Bi12dSH2cz— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) February 26, 2017
Although Ajmal got the wicket after a serious hitting but Gayle had done the damage as he brought the required run rate down to under 7 runs per over. They won the match with one ball to spare as another West Indian, Kieron Pollard made sure that his team reaches home with a win.
