Chris Gayle joins the one-day international 10,000 club
Gayle has become just the second West Indian to reach the landmark.
Chris Gayle has become the 14th batsman to reach 10,000 runs in one-day international cricket after hitting a brilliant 162 against England on Wednesday.
The big-hitting opener, now 39, announced he will retire from ODI cricket after this summer’s World Cup.
His form in the current one-day series against England, which has featured knocks of 135, 50 and 162, has taken him past the 10,000 mark and makes him only the second West Indian, after Brian Lara, to reach five figures.
Chasing Lara
With one more match of the series against England, a tri-series with Ireland and Bangladesh, the World Cup plus warm-up games to come before he rides into the sunset, Gayle – who averages 38.15 in ODIs – will have hopes of overhauling the great Trinidadian.
Passing Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan (10,290) and then Lara would take Gayle to 12th on the all-time list, which appears the limit of his ambitions – the next two batsmen in his sights, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, are still playing and then comes another Indian, Rahul Dravid, over 800 runs ahead of Gayle on 10,889.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Jacques Kallis and Sourav Ganguly are the other players in the exclusive club, with the latter making it five Indians among the 13 players.
Gayle’s ODI average is lower than all but Jayawardene (33.37) and Jayasuriya (32.36) but he has hit more sixes than any of the 10,000 club.
Favoured opponents
Zimbabwe are his favourite opponents, allowing him 1,549 runs at an average of almost 62, with 11 half-centuries and three hundreds in 30 innings. He has also hit 1,241 runs against India.
Gayle has made four hundreds and seven fifties against England, with a best score of 162 coming in Grenada on Wednesday. Only Zimbabwe and Australia have been on the end of more half-centuries from Gayle, who has seven against the latter.
