Chris Gayle is one of the most destructive batters to have played the IPL. Firstly he was in Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) where he could not do that much but the turning point of his IPL career came in 2011 when he joined Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) 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 that 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 India in 2013. He started by 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 " 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.
Most sixes in an innings
Chris Gayle and sixes is like the greatest love story in cricket. He has hit so many sixes that it is difficult to keep count. However, there was one day when he hit a century just by dealing in sixes as he smashed 17 sixes in an innings against Pune Warriors India in 2013 where he hit 175 runs. It is the record of most sixes in an innings in IPL history. Seeing his towering sixes was a delight for all the names not named Pune. Gayle did all this while smiling as if nothing was happening. He was 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.
The 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 two IPL Orange caps is more powerful 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 61.08.
The 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 Rohit Sharma (280 sixes), who is still dreaming of 300 IPL sixes even after three years of Gayle's last IPL match. No one hits sixes with as much ease as Chris Gayle and probably never will. The Caribbean left-handed batter ended his IPL career with 357 sixes and still holds the record for most sixes in IPL history by player
Most runs from boundaries (4s and 6s) in an innings
Once again, Chris Gayle is not a surprising name in this list. During his historic 175-run knock for RCB against Pune Warriors India in IPL 2013, Gayle smashed 13 fours and 17 sixes that totaled 154 runs from boundaries. That was an exceptional knock as the left-handed batter scored 88% runs from boundaries in that giant T20 knock.
