Chris Gayle blew Trinbago away with an unbeaten century to secure a seven-wicket victory for Jamaica, despite Hashim Amla’s 74.
Amla combined with New Zealanders Brendon McCullum (35 off 18) and Colin Munro (55 off 39) to help his side to 191-4, but for the third time in their four matches so far, the defending champions were unable to defend their total. It was their highest score of the tournament, but they forgot to account for a certain Chris Gayle, who blasted 11 sixes on his way to an 18th T20 century.
Amla has been in good touch so far and leads the run-charts, albeit with more games under his belt. It was his second fifty of the tournament, and two of his three sixes were struck off Dale Steyn, who endured a tough time despite being on the winning side. Steyn took the key wicket of Munro, but was then hit for 22 runs off his final over, which included back-to-back sixes from Amla, in figures of 1-56 from his allotted overs.
Gayle has made a bit of a name for himself as being a slow starter, so it was a classic Gayle knock on Monday night, as he only had six runs to his name after five overs. Incredibly, after 10 overs he only had 30 runs off 25 balls with the required run rate escalating to 12 an over. Then 4 6 6 1 6 6 4 1 4 6 1 6 6 6 (59 in 13 balls), which included 30 off a solitary Sulieman Benn over, to guide his side over the line with ten balls remaining.
Photo: CPL/Sportfile
