When Chris Gayle starts limping...

In his autobiography All Round View, former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan wrote about the best batsmen of his time – Clive Lloyd, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, Viv Richards and of course, Gordon Greenidge.

Imran gave Greenidge, the West Indies opener, a special mention in the book – ‘he is an exceptional batsman who can defend if he needs to, but when he attacks, he’s as good as anybody.’ But then he points out a particular habit that had become the bane of bowlers all around the world.

“Greenidge’s main problem is that he seems very injury prone for a batsman. He is often seen limping about at the crease, yet in some ways he then seems to become even more dangerous. I have never seen anyone score more runs when apparently injured.”

Obviously Chris Gayle wasn’t around then or Imran might have had a very different opinion.

It all began in the tenth over when Mumbai Indians spinner Harbhajan Singh went for a return catch and crashed into Gayle’s left leg. The big West Indian, who was at the non-striker’s end, went down like a house of cards and was in obvious pain. It was unintentional – but what happened after that will ensure that no one will want to injure Gayle even intentionally.

At the time of injury, Gayle was on 23 off 22 balls with two fours and one six – nothing special by T20 standards. The physio came running in but it was some time before Gayle was back on his feet.

But you can’t keep Gayle down through a game. The injury was an invitation to not run; it was an invitation to get stuck in; it was an invitation to hit the big shots. And the Jamaican didn’t need to be told twice. He was on strike and the next over from Pollard was smashed for 15 runs – 2 fours (one of them a leading-edge), a 95-meter long six and a single off the fifth ball to keep the strike.

From that point on, Gayle gave a masterful display of T20 batting. He’s won the orange cap (the highest run-scorer award) for the last two seasons and there’s no reason why he can’t do it again.

After getting injured, Gayle hit another 9 fours and 4 sixes – including one off the last ball of the innings and he did it despite being in obvious discomfort.

“All our bowlers tried to bowl at him in different areas, bowl at his toes and wide outside the off-stump. (But) being as strong as he is if anybody gets half the bat on, it does go for six,” Mumbai Indians skipper Ricky Ponting said after the game.

“Though he was limping most of his innings, he made the difference in the game. There is no doubt about it.”

For RCB skipper Virat Kohli, the innings was a sign of things to come.

“Obviously Chris has been magnificent for us. He has proved why he is the best Twenty20 player in the world and also showed us that he does not think about hard hitting, but thinks about the game as well,” he said.

“We are not worried about the tag attached to Chris. You can’t say this in the first game of the tournament,” he added.

Some might say that Gayle has worked out the template of the perfect T20 innings – take your time getting set and then unleash hell. But the RCB opener had a word of advice for those who might be tempted into thinking that they had his number.

“I might come out swinging early in another game. So there’s nothing certain. I needed to stay there and do what was needed. The ball was seaming around. The key was to put up a partnership with (Daniel) Christian,” said Gayle.

And as if his batting isn’t dangerous enough, Gayle reminded everyone that’s he’s quite a good bowler too.

“If I was bowling offspinners I’d probably take 4 for 10 runs because I’m the best offspinner around!”