Chris Gayle is one of the most destructive batters to have played the IPL. Firstly he was in Kolkata Knight Riders where he could not do that much but the turning point of his IPL career came in 2011 when he joined Royal Challengers Bangalore and after that there was no looking back for the Universe Boss in the greatest T20 tournament in the world.
He started smacking every bowler who was bowling in front of him and his sixes were so big that he cleared the stadium with ease. The fans loved him and we’re chanting for him at the Chinnaswamy.
Let’s look at some of the records the Universe Boss has in the IPL:
Highest Individual score in IPL history
This is one record which will most likely not be broken anytime soon. Hitting 175 in a T20 match is outrageous and doing it in just 66 balls is even more extraordinary. The ground was the Chinnaswamy and the Unfortunate opponents were the Pune Warriors in 2013. He started with hitting huge Sixes of all bowlers and he showed no mercy to anyone that day. Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers were spectators in the show of the Universe Boss. He broke the record of Brendon McCullum who hit a smashing 158 in the very first match of the IPL. This was a once in a lifetime innings by a special cricketer and all the fans were privileged to have witnessed it.
Also Read | When Chris Gayle Created Record In IPL
Most sixes in an innings
Chris Gayle and sixes is like the greatest love story in cricket. And he has hit so many sixes that it is difficult to keep count. However, there was one day where he hit a century just by dealing in sixes as he smashed 17 sixes in an innings against Pune in 2013 where he hit 175 runs. Seeing his towering sixes was a delight for all the name not named Pune. And he did all this while smiling as if nothing was happening. He is a once in a lifetime cricketer, the likes of which we may never see again. That exhibition of six hitting that day will be remembered forever.
Most number of hundreds in IPL
This record is also held by the Universe Boss Chris Gayle. It shows how consistent he was in the tournament hitting 6 hundreds in such a difficult format to score hundreds. His first IPL hundred came against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens in 2011 where he single handedly won RCB the match. His next few hundreds came against Kings X1 Punjab and Delhi Daredevils where he smashed then to all parts. Then came that innings of 175 against Pune and after that again he scored against Punjab and finally for his 6th century he scored it for Punjab against Sunrisers Hyderabad and won them the match.
Only player to win back to back Orange caps
Winning one Orange cap is considered to be the best batting feat in the IPL, winning 2 with years in between is also amazing but to win it back to back is only the stuff that the Universe Boss can do. In 2011, when he joined the RCB team he hit 608 runs in just 12 matches and then the following year he bettered it by hitting 733 runs at a crazy average of 61.
Only batter to hit 350 IPL sixes
350 sixes is an insurmountable number for the other batters but for the Universe Boss Chris Gayle it is like any record for him. To understand the enormity of this record the second best is AB De Villiers with almost 100 sixes behind him. No one hits sixes with as much ease as Chris Gayle and probably never will.
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