Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) notched up a huge victory over Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in match no. 40 of the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday; courtesy a blitzkreig from Caribbean swagger batsman Chris Gayle.
Twitterati went delirious during and after his match-winning knock of 117 runs from just 57 balls.
When a devastating batsman is dropped twice in spite of knowing the fact that he can send any bowler to the cleaners, he would definitely come up with an innings of this sort.
Gayle was dropped twice, once by the KXIP skipper George Bailey himself, when he was batting on 27 and once by Manan Vohra while Gayle was batting on 53.
Gayle piled up his 14th Twenty20 (T20) century, which is the most by any batsman in this format of the game. He also went past the 3000 run mark in IPL after Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir. He is also the first overseas player to achieve this feat.
He was rested during their last match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and that probably gave him the license to come out and bat nonchalantly against KXIP on Wednesday. He hit seven boundaries and 12 colossal sixes on his way to 117.
The cricket fraternity on Twitter expressed their delight during and after experiencing the Gayle storm.
Commentator Harsha Bhogle tweeted: "Still no bigger sight then @henrygayle going berserk! #RCB #PepsiIPL."
New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill followed: "I need Chris Gayle's gym program! #IPL2015." Kevin Pietersen too expressed his joy after watching that innings on Twitter: "He is the World Boss & he's showing us why - @henrygayle #Peter #Bird."
Owner of RCB Siddharth Mallya tweeted about Gayle's celebration after he completed his century: "Forget Bravo, Andre Russell, Tahir etc....that celebration by @henrygayle was by far the best EVER!! #RCB #RCBvKXIP #IPL."
Former Australian cricketer Damien Martyn was at the commentary box during the game between RCB and KXIP and he too got his hands on Twitter and expressed his experience: "Absolute pleasure to be at the ground and watch @henrygayle score the fastest @IPL 100 this year ... @RCBTweets @lionsdenkxip #IPL2015."
"What a knock and what a celebration tonight from @henrygayle mate... Some serious hitting," he added.
