Yuvraj Singh celebrated widely as Gayle brought up his hundred. (Source: IPL)
Chris Gayle’s maiden hundred in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 helped Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 16th match of the tournament. Universe Boss- Gayle’s unbeaten innings of 103 which came off just 63 balls powered KXIP to a challenging total of 193/3 before the bowlers restricted the opposition to 178, handing KXIP a win by 15 runs. However, it was the Jamaican’s fantastic ton which was the highlight of the evening in Mohali. After a shaky start to his innings, the big West Indian launched a destructive attack on the bowlers. ICC’s number one ranked T20 bowler, Rashid Khan suffered the most of Gayle’s brutal onslaught as the Afghanistan leg-spinner was taken for 26 runs in one over- which included four humongous sixes. With a single on the off side in the penultimate over of the match, Gayle reached the three-figure mark, which sparked huge celebrations across the IS Bindra Stadium. However, Yuvraj Singh’s ‘Gangnam’ style jig grabbed the attention of fans across the world.
Congratulations @henrygayle Just Awesome..#SRHvKXIP @IPL 100 runs in 58 balls pic.twitter.com/EMri9dtzRD
— Mohammad shawon (@shawon841) 19 April 2018
Meanwhile, courtesy of Gayle’s magnificent knock KXIP notched up their third win of the tournament to sit at the third spot of the points table. Reflecting on his team’s performance, skipper R Ashwin expressed delight and speaking at the post-match press conference said, “I think it was a complete performance. It was one of those times when we won the toss and batted first and tried and defended a score. Did that pretty well. Would have liked to have given away 10 runs lesser for the NRR. Giving them a reasonable score to defend was something we thought we could handle at the end. It (bowling all pace in powerplay) was a good wicket. Chris batted well and took it away from them.”