The Indian Premier League (IPL) has seen a number of brilliant knocks over the years but none of them were as explosive as Chris Gayle’s unbeaten 175 against Pune Warriors in 2013. The destructive innings from the West Indies opener remains the highest score in the tournament’s history and it was also the fastest T20 hundred at that point. Gayle, who was playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013, slammed 13 boundaries and 17 sixes to score his century in just 30 balls and he ultimately ended his innings on 175 off 66 balls.
The knock took RCB to a record-breaking 263/5 in 20 overs. In reply, Pune Warriors could only manage to score 133/9 with Gayle picking up two wickets for just five runs.
Last year, Gayle broke his record of 17 sixes (during the knock for RCB on April 23, 2013 in the Indian Premier League) when he slammed 18 maximums during his unbeaten 136 off 69 balls for the Rangpur Riders against Dhaka Dynamites in the Bangladesh Premier League.
However, the record for the fastest hundred still stands as the century off 30 balls was four balls faster than the record held by Andrew Symonds for Kent against Middlesex in 2004.
“I’m lost for words. It was just one of those days when I was hitting the ball really well and it was coming out of the middle of the bat,” said Gayle when asked about his innings.
Even the RCB teammates were in awe of Gayle’s destructive batting display and Muttiah Muralidharan showered praises on the West Indies batsman after the IPL encounter.
“It is unbelievable. I’ve played cricket for 20 years and never seen anything like it,” said the Sri Lanka spinner who holds the record of taking the most number of wickets in Tests.
