Chris Gayle highest score in IPL: On April 23, 2013, Chris Gayle smashed the fastest century in IPL history before going on to make the greatest individual score in T20 cricket, 175 not out.
Chris Gayle set the record for the greatest individual score in Twenty20 cricket with an unbeaten 175 runs against the now-defunct Pune Warriors India (PWI) on this day eight years ago. Among the many other IPL records, his achievement still stands out. Prior to Gayle, the award had gone to Brendon McCullum, who had 158 runs for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the league’s debut season. Gayle’s amazing 66-ball knock is still imprinted in the minds of most die-hard fans.
Punjab Kings shared a photo of the ‘Universe Boss’ from their net session on Friday, captioning it, “Highest-ever T20 score (175), Fastest T20 century, Most sixes in an innings. #OnThisDay, we all witnessed a #GayleStorm.”
The historic moment occurred during the IPL 2013’s 31st match. Because it was pouring that day, the match had to be postponed for a few minutes. What happened next, however, no one could have predicted.
Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan opened the batting for RCB, and Gayle quickly raced to his fifty just 17 balls. After that, he only needed 13 balls to reach his century. Gayle’s 30-ball century in that game remains the IPL’s fastest century. Gayle went on to score 75 runs in the next 36 balls. His 175-run innings included 17 sixes.
RCB scored 263 runs for the loss of five wickets in their 20 overs, becoming the first side in the IPL to reach the 250-run milestone. RCB’s 263 against PWI remains the greatest ever team total in the event’s history.
Pune could only muster a pathetic 133/9 in response, as RCB cruised to victory by 130 runs.
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Chris Gayle has the greatest IPL score of 17 sixes, 13 fours, and 18 dots.
The greatest individual score in all Twenty20 matches is 175 not out, while the Royal Challengers’ total of 263 is the highest by any team. This is only the third time a batsman has scored 150 runs in an innings, with Brendon McCullum (158 not out in the IPL’s first game in 2008) and Graham Napier (152 not out for Essex against Sussex in June 2008) being the previous two. (For a complete list of the highest individual Twenty20 cricket scores, see here.)
Gayle’s century came in 30 balls, four less than the previous record of 34 balls set by Andrew Symonds for Kent against Middlesex in 2004. Yusuf Pathan’s 37-ball performance for Rajasthan Royals against Mumbai Indians in 2010 was the previous fastest in the IPL. (For the fastest Twenty20 hundreds, click here.) His half-century came off 17 balls, which is the same as Adam Gilchrist’s half-century against Delhi Daredevils in 2009.
Gayle hit 17 sixes in his innings, the most ever in a Twenty20 match; the previous mark was 16, set by Graham Napier when he scored his undefeated 152. He is also the only player in Twenty20 history to achieve 100 runs solely on sixes. McCullum’s 13 during his undefeated 158 was the previous high in the IPL. He also hit 13 fours, for a total of 154 runs in fours and sixes, the most ever in a Twenty20 inning. The previous high score was 136 by Napier (16 sixes and 10 fours). Gayle is also the only batsman in Twenty20 history to hit a century of runs with fours and sixes.
Gayle has more than twice as many centuries in this format as the next-highest scorers, David Warner and McCullum, who both have five. He had four hundred in the IPL alone, more than twice as much as the next-best player.
Even though his entire innings was played at a breakneck pace, the 27 balls he faced between the start of the second over and the fifth ball of the ninth, when he smashed his 11th six to achieve his century, were his best. Gayle scored 101 runs from 27 balls bowled during that time (including no-balls) for a strike rate of 22.44 runs per over, with eight fours and 11 sixes. Tillakaratne Dilshan, his opening partner, scored 15 out of 22 within the same time span. Gayle’s strike rate fell after his century, though (though only compared to his own earlier levels). His final 73 runs came off 36 balls, at a 12.16 run per over pace.
Between overs 8.6 and 11.2 (immediately after he reached his century), Gayle struck nine balls between a four and a six, during which time he scored five singles and four dot balls. He could only play two dot balls in a row.
Luke Wright was the most economical of the seven bowlers who bowled to Gayle, scoring 13 from 16 balls and bowling six dots. With 11 off seven balls, Bhuvneshwar Kumar came in second. Aaron Finch was the poorest, conceding 28 off five, while Ali Murtaza took 43 off 10.
In Chris Gayle’s innings, the gap between runs scored and balls played was 109, which is the first time the differential has been greater than 100 in Twenty20 innings. The previous record was set by Namibia’s Louis van der Westhuizen against Kenya, who had a 95-run differential between runs scored and balls played.
Gayle had 142 more runs in the innings than Dilshan, who had 33. In an innings, this is the largest run differential between the leading scorer and the next-best scorer.
Dilshan was entirely overshadowed, yet his 167-run partnership with Gayle is the greatest for the first wicket in the IPL, surpassing Dwayne Smith and Sachin Tendulkar’s 163 against the Royals in 2012, and joint fourth for all wickets.
Despite all of the hitting, the record for the greatest strike-rate for a 100-plus score was not broken in this inning. At the end of the innings, Gayle had a strike rate of 265.15, which is the fourth-best for a 100-plus score. Van der Westhuizen’s top score is 290 (145 from 50 balls) against Kenya. Yusuf Pathan and Scott Styris both hit 100s off 37 balls in the next two innings (strike rate 270.27).
The 130-run margin of victory is tied for seventh-best in all Twenty20 matches and second-best in IPL history.