Quote:This will probably be too much runs for West Indies, most thought, when India racked up 192 runs in the semi-final of the ICC World Twenty20 2016. For them to win Chris Gayle has to bat deep into the innings and stage the kind of pyrotechnics that saw the big left-hander smashing 100 in 48 deliveries versus England. India's was a huge score. Surely some significant contribution was required from the game's most powerful hitter for the Caribbean side to triumph.
A few experts on television pretty much said the same thing, as must have a number of West Indian fans. And so the sound of air being collectively sucked from the gut of many by Jasprit Bumrah's swinging, dipping, full delivery, that disturbed the Jamaicans off-stump, would have been loud indeed could it have somehow been gathered in one place.
We should have known better. West Indies has long been a formidable T20 side due to the incendiary nature of its batting. Gayle is obviously the most powerful, most famous of the group but players like Andre Russell, who struck a whirlwind 43 off just 20 balls, and captain Darren Sammy can strike a cricket ball as far as anyone; while the likes of Dwayne Bravo, Lendl Simmons, as he showed, and Marlon Samuels are capable of turning a game on their own. A good innings by Gayle would've been welcomed, but suggesting West Indies were not able to chase challenging totals without a hefty contribution from the opener was a gross inaccuracy.
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