Chris Gayle becomes the first batsman in the universe to score 14,000 points in T20 cricket
West Indies legend Chris Gayle has completed 14,000 runs in T20 cricket, and also registered a half-century in the 3rd T20I against Australia.
41 years old and still going strong, Chris Gayle isn’t just an entertainer in the shortest format of the game but a true legend when it comes to limited-overs cricket. In the third T20I against Australia, the Universe Boss reached another breathtaking milestone as he became the first batsman all across the globe to register 14,000 runs in T20 cricket alone.
Gayle hadn’t done well for West Indies in the first two games of the series, scoring 4 and 13 runs respectively. As criticism of his selection started to surface, Gayle showed why he still remains one of the finest batsmen in the shortest format of the game.
The hard-hitting batsman reached the milestone of 14k runs in the 20-over game with a six off Adam Zampa. It was the first ball of the 9th over of the innings that saw Gayle hit the Aussie spinner for a maximum. Gayle went on to register a half-century on the occasion, celebrating another huge landmark of his cricketing career in style. He was eventually dismissed for 67 by Riley Meredith.
Following Gayle on the list is his compatriot Kieron Pollard who has 10836 runs in the format to his name. Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik isn’t far behind Pollard with 1074 runs in 425 matches. Australia’s David Warner (10017 runs in 304 matches) and India’s Virat Kohli (9992 runs in 310 matches) complete the top five.
Heading into the match, Gayle had scored 13,971 runs in 430 matches at an average of 37.55 runs. He has now scored a total of 22 hundreds and 86 half-centuries. Gayle has over 1,000 fours to his name in T20 cricket as well as over a thousand sixes.
The 41-year-old’s highest score in the format is an unbeaten 175 against the now-defunct Indian Premier League franchise Pune Warriors India in the 2013 season when he was playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Gayle is also the top-scoring batsman for Windies in T20 internationals.
