VIDEO | Chris Gayle sports huge smile after Andre Russell and umpire hit the ground to save their lives
When Gayle is on song it is better to sit and savour - but from a safe position. As Chris Gayle defied Newtonâs third law of motion to hit an Andre Russell ball harder than it arrived, both the bowler and the umpire hit the ground to save themselves and he ended up with a huge smile on his face.
Gayle was almost on the brink of missing out on this yearâs IPL as no team opted to buy him out at his base price of Rs. 2 crores. Virender Sehwag and Preity Zinta took the risk to bid for the left-handed opener at the dying stage of the auction and it has turned out to be a smart move by the franchise. While it has been often said that âRevenge is a dish best served coldâ, it appears Gayle prefers to serve it hot and his recent performances with the bat were a sound reminder to all the teams that wrote him off in the auction.Â
Gayle has looked in fine form throughout this tournament where he also managed to notch a century against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kings XI Punjab went into tonightâs match against struggling Kolkata Knight Riders with their back against the wall, and if the first innings batting was anything to go by, it was KKR all over the way.
Chasing 246 needed Kingsâ opener KL Rahul and Chris Gayle to fire from the outset, and it was the former who took the responsibility first to give the team's a flying start. And when Russell came out to bowl the fourth over, Gayle realised that it was the moment for him to open his arms and he did that in some style.
On the second ball of the over, the KKR star bowled a full ball to which Gayle drilled it off the toe-end. Although the ball was not fast, Gayle actually used all his energy to smash the ball over the bowlerâs head which caused a huge danger for the bowler and the umpire standing at the business end.
However, the best reaction was yet to come as Gayle had a wary smile on his face after watching the duo falling off their position to save their lives because of a shot which could only be termed as riotous.Â