Gayle’s blazing guns in vain

The Gayle-storm is back! The Jamaican tornado has devastated the Taunton ground in a clash of the NatWest t20 Blast 2015 between Kent and Somerset. A splendid performance by the mighty West Indies opener Chris Gayle shell shocked every single viewer. Although he couldn’t take his Somerset side over the line of victory,  he definitely showed why he is a nightmare for any bowling line up.

In a rather thrilling contest here at Taunton, Kent skipper Sam Northeast chose to bat first and his boys seemed to live upto the expectations by not settling for anything less than a mammoth total of 227 for 7 in their stipulated 20 overs. The skipper along with the opener, Bell-Drummond, hit the Somerset bowlers to all corners of the park, with the captain scoring a spectacular ton and the opener a half-century. But what followed after that can be termed as a one sided show by Gayle in which he toiled around with the Kent bowlers, thrashing the bowlers as if it was a child’s play.

Starting his inning in his usual manner, he first took a note of the track and the bowlers. But once his foot set in, he showed no sense of respect for the bowlers and punished them for some wayward bowling. The powerful stroke play by this hard hitting hunter seemed to destroy all scopes of bowling pleasures for the Kent boys. With wickets falling at one end, Gayle stood there and kept hitting the bowlers mercilessly, drawing his team towards the victory inch by inch.

In his blissful knock of 151 off 62 balls, he cleared the boundary line 25 times, out of which 15 times the ball just sailed past the fence. With a strike rate of more than 200, Gayle hit his 15th t20 century, a record in itself. However, what followed towards the end was quite disheartening for this brave warrior as his team fell short of the opposition by just a triplet. With 17 runs being needed off the last over, Gayle could manage only 13, thereby unable to win it for his side.

In spite of the result, what the crowd witnessed was an exhilarating match with Gayle giving a thunderous performance for which he was rightly awarded the Man of the Match prize.