World Cup: Pluck and luck come together in Chris Gayle's epic double ton

On February 21, 2015 – just three days back – Chris Gayle had scratched around for 4 off 20 balls and off the 21st ball, he went for a pull off Mohammad Irfan of Pakistan but top edged it to fine leg. The struggle ended. Moments after his departure, a fan tweeted, “Gayle goes? Can’t buy a run. Let’s give him a retirement package. Can’t fail repeatedly and still front up based on reputation.” West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief Dave Cameron re-tweeted it even while the match was on. Fast forward to February 24, 2015: Gayle is kneeling on the ground, his arms are outstretched pointing towards the heaven with a big beaming smile on his face. He has just hit the fastest double century in ODIs. One wouldn’t have been surprised if he had pulled out a note from his pocket (a la Dinesh Ramdin) with the words ‘YEH CAMERON TALK NAH!’ [caption id=“attachment_2118995” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Chris Gayle celebrates after scoring his double century against Zimbabwe. Getty[/caption] At the Manuka Oval, Gayle showed the world that the best way to silence the critics is to shatter record after record. His 215 off 147 balls against Zimbabwe was typically Gayle; it was also typically brutal. Though Cameron apologised for his actions later, he could have had another chance to re-tweet a Gayle failure tweet if the DRS hadn’t saved the Jamaican off the first ball of his innings. It was the fourth ball of the match when the umpire turned down a huge LBW appeal against Gayle off Tinashe Panyangara. Zimbabwe opted for a review, it looked plumb to the naked eye but HawkEye replays showed it would have just clipped the bails. The decision once again went back to the umpire – his decision stood and Gayle got a lifeline. That was a slice of luck Gayle needed desperately. “Well, come on - you can’t be serious, I can’t be out on the first ball. No, I need a chance,” Gayle said to himself while Zimbabwe reviewed the decision. Gayle survived… he also survived a couple of mishits but from that point on, there was no looking back. It wasn’t a typical Gayle innings – he just didn’t go bang, bang from the start. This was a mature and determined innings from a man who was under tremendous pressure. Coming into the match, Gayle had scored just 274 runs in his last 19 innings at 14.42 and a strike rate of 70.43 with just one fifty. He hadn’t registered a three-figure score in ODIs in 19 months. But at the Manuka Oval, he was determined not to repeat his mistakes. He scored his first fifty off 51 balls. Samuels was playing a sedate innings, there were 100 dot balls in the first 29 overs, but Gayle kept calm. He took 54 balls to go from 51 to 100 and on the way, became just the second West Indies player after Brian Lara to register 9000 runs in ODIs. Just as he brought up his fifty with a quick single, statistician Mohandas Menon tweeted, “Never seen Chris Gayle run so hard for a single to reach his 50!” After reaching his century with a single to long off, his first since June 2013, there were no wild celebrations – he just raised the bat and bumped shoulders with Samuels. After his century, he picked up the scoring. He went from 101 to 150 off just 21 balls with five sixes and one four in that space. Again, there was just a casual raise of the bat after reaching 150 off 126 balls. He had set his sights on something much bigger. The danger signs were always there. Gayle loves playing against Zimbabwe; he had just become the highest run-getter in ODIs against Zimbabwe. When he smashed Elton Chigumbura over cow corner for a brutal six, Zimbabwe coach Dav Whatmore sat shocked on the dressing room balcony with a pretty easy to decipher ’this could get extremely ugly’ shake of the head. Whatmore’s fears were justified and what followed was carnage - six sixes and four fours were hit as Gayle went from 151 to 200 in just 12 balls. He surpassed his previous best score with a six, he overtook Gary Kirsten’s highest World Cup score with a six and then overtook Virender Sehwag (140 balls) for the fastest double century, the first in a World Cup off just 138 balls with a four through extra cover. The relief on his face was palpable. He was out off the final ball of the innings and the entire Manuka Oval rose to its feet to applaud a special innings from a special man. “You know, it’s been a lot of pressure and the runs haven’t been coming. This is the first time in my career, so many people wanted me to score runs and the messages keep coming in, on twitter… on your cellphone and everything - this is the first time I have ever seen, so many people wanting Chris Gayle to perform so badly and in the end I’m really glad, I gave them something to actually cheer about,” Gayle said after the innings. The standout part was, his innings was smartly constructed. Just over 40% of the balls he played were dot balls - 59. He scored 157 of his 215 runs through the leg side, which shows he was cautious with deliveries on and around off which have brought about his downfall previously. “It was slow at the start to be honest and it was keeping a bit low as well. You got to take the bull by its horns and try and play some shots and try and put some pressure back on them,” Gayle said. “And I didn’t want to actually dig myself into a shell as well and just try and be aggressive out there and then eventually the field spread, took ones and twos, and when you want to pick it up as well then you can choose which bowler to target and get your runs. That’s how I actually played this innings,” the Jamaican added. In the pre-match conference a reporter asked Holder whether the Dave Cameron retweet antics would awaken Gayle. Holder replied, “Well, Chris is awake. I can assure you he’s awake. He was awake from the beginning of the tournament.” Now, that is a question no one is going to be asking him or Gayle.