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 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. 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. 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.
Most runs from boundaries (4s and 6s) in an innings
Must Read | Looking back at Chris Gayle’s T20 Career
