This is the home of the ‘universe boss’, says Darren Sammy, and they are all excited. And so they should be. Chris Gayle has scored more hundreds, clubbed more sixes, and made more runs than anyone else in T20 cricket.
Last week, he sank England with his relentless hitting, pushing West Indies off to a great start in the ICC World T20. And now he’s ‘home’, in the loving environs of the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, a venue he has enthralled like no other overseas cricketer. In his five seasons with Royal Challengers Bangalore, Gayle has scored over 1500 runs here, at an average verging on 55.
When he walks out against Sri Lanka for their group 1 game here on Sunday, West Indies will hope Gayle is in his element — hitting the ball far, making big runs, and having fun.
As a team, Sri Lanka has enjoyed some success against Gayle, limiting the Jamaican to scores of 5, 2, 3, and 3 in their last four T20I meetings, all in the World T20.
Two years ago in the semifinals in Dhaka, Gayle fell for a 13-ball-three to Lasith Malinga; in the final of the previous edition, he was removed for a laboured, 16-ball-three by Ajantha Mendis.
Suited to cameo rolesAs much as Sammy, the West Indies captain, may hail his side’s destructive abilities with the bat, there is a sense that many of those power hitters after Gayle — the skipper included — are better suited to cameo roles.
Sri Lanka had a plan for Gayle, the coach Graham Ford said, although he was not sure if the old schemes would still work. “We have put a few things in place in the past,” he said. “In 2012 we did quite nicely against him. Whether that still works — we’ll find out.
“We’re certainly not going to be telling everybody what we did in those two games to keep him quiet. It’s certainly something we’ll be trying to do again in this game.”
This encounter, though, is about a lot more than one batsman. Sri Lanka, after a less-than-emphatic defeat of Afghanistan in its opening game in Kolkata, needs to demonstrate that it can defend its World T20 title. Much confidence has ebbed away after seven losses in nine T20Is in the lead-up to the competition.
That Malinga has been ruled out of the tournament does not help either. A great deal now rests on the shoulders of Angelo Mathews and Rangana Herath, both key figures with the ball if the West Indian batting is to be subdued.
If Sri Lanka’s own batsmen can put Samuel Badree and Sulieman Benn under pressure, there will be reward. Otherwise, there isn’t much, it would seem, for Sammy and his merry lot to be worried about.
