England beat the West Indies after a record-breaking run chase in the first ODI at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Wednesday.
- Next up: 500
The match yielded Chris Gayle’s 477th six in international cricket – the most by anyone in the history of the game. He surpassed Pakistani Afridi’s tally of 476 after hoisting a delivery from spinner Moeen Ali over long-on. Gayle has now struck 287, 103 and 98 ODI, T20I and Test sixes. For South Africa, former captain AB de Villiers has hit the most sixes across all format of the international game – 328 in 484 appearances.
- Setting and chasing
England boasts the two highest ODI totals batting first – 481 for six against Australia in 2018 and 444 for three versus Pakistan two years earlier. Both were amassed at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. They now also sport the third-highest successful run chase. South Africa’s historic 438 for nine at the Wanderers in 2006 and 372 for six at Kingsmead in 2016, both against Australia, are the largest successful ODI pursuits.
- Fourth to 5,000
During the series opener in Barbados, batsman Joe Root became only the fourth England cricketer to gather 5,000 ODI runs. Captain Eoin Morgan leads the line with 5,878, followed by the veteran Ian Bell’s 5,416 and all-rounder Paul Collingwood’s 5,092. Root’s average of 52.04 is the highest of the four, some 12 runs more than Morgan’s 39.18.
- Short of two dozen
The West Indies struck 23 sixes in Bridgetown – the most by any team in an ODI innings. New Zealand’s 22 – against the men from the Caribbean in Queenstown five years ago – was the previous best. South Africa managed 20 versus India in Mumbai in 2015 – centurions Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and De Villiers sharing 18 of those.
- 12 biggies later
Only five other batsmen – De Villiers, India’s Rohit Sharma, Australian Shane Watson, New Zealander Corey Anderson and Sri Lankan Thisara Perera have hit more than the dozen sixes Gayle accumulated on Wednesday. Gayle, Sharma and De Villiers share the record for the most sixes in an innings with 16. De Villiers’ 16 came against the West Indies in Johannesburg four years ago.
Photo: Gallo
