IPL 2020 | Team asked me to do a job at 3 and it wasn't an issue, insists Chris Gayle

10/15/2020

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Chris Gayle has insisted that the openers were doing good in the tournament and hence he was given the no. 3 spot by the team which, he revealed, was not a problem for him. Gayle added that he wasn’t nervous in the last over, where after needing 2 to win, Punjab stretched the game to the last ball.

Chasing a target of 172, KXIP finally put an end to their losing streak with openers Mayank Agarwal, scoring 25-ball 45, and KL Rahul, scoring unbeaten 49-ball 61, leading the team from the front. However, after hitting Yuzvendra Chahal for a classical six, Mayank tried to do the same on the next but unfortunately got castled by him. In an interesting decision, Chris Gayle, who was playing his first match of IPL 2020, was sent to bat at number 3, and, even more bizarrely, he struck a sensible and mature, 45-ball 53, unlike his usual destructive self.

Speaking post match, Gayle, who today played his first game of the season, revealed that despite being played out of position, he was more than happy to do a job for the side at No.3.

"It was a very sticky surface, very slow, but it was better batting second. Team asked me to do a job at 3 and it wasn't an issue. Openers been batting well throughout the tournament and we didn't want to disturb that. Like I said, I was given a job and took it,” Gayle said post-match.

The 41-year-old pointed to the "Boss" sticker on his bat after completing a half-century and he revealed that the gist of the celebration was to ask people to 'put some respect on the name'.

"All I was saying, put some respect on the name [by pointing to his bat sticker]. That's all," Gayle said of his celebration.

Despite KXIP needing just 2 runs off the final over, Gayle couldn’t hit the winning runs as he got run out in what was a final over fiasco. Eventually, from 2 off 6, it came down to 1 needed off the last ball and fellow West Indian Nicholas Pooran scored the winning runs off the last delivery through an asserting six. Gayle, on being asked if he was nervous in the last over, insisted that he is the universal boss and he doesn’t get nervous.

“Not really nervous. I mean, come on. It's Universe Boss batting, how can I be nervous," the 41-year-old quipped.