AGENCIES
MUMBAI
Chris Gayle hit the fastest century in World Twenty20 cricket as West Indies thumped England by six wickets in their Group 1 match at the Wankhede Stadium, here on Wednesday.
Gayle, who completed his century off 47 balls, remained unbeaten on 100 off 48 balls with five fours and 11 towering sixes to better his own record of a 50-ball hundred in the 2007 tournament in South Africa.
Marlon Samuels set the tone by hitting eight fours in his 37 before Gayle's brutal hitting took West Indies to 183-4 in 18.1 overs in reply to what earlier appeared to be a competitive England total of 182-6.
England seamers found it difficult to control the wet ball because of dew at the Wankhede Stadium as Gayle completed his half century off 27 balls, smashing three fours and five sixes.
"The dew played a part as well," Gayle said. "After facing the first over, I took a while to get back on strike. But Marlon helped ease the pressure."
The left-hander required only another 20 deliveries to complete his century and smashed six more sixes and two boundaries that included three straight successive sixes off off-spinner Moeen Ali.
"Before I went out, Sulieman Benn said 'entertain me'," Gayle said. "Pleased to finish the game and not leave it to anyone else. I was pumped today."
West Indies never stayed behind the asking run-rate of over nine an over and England bowlers had no answer to the barrage of runs off Gayle's bat.
After losing Samuels in the seventh over, Gayle waited for the loose deliveries to punish England's bowlers. Such was Gayle's domination that Andre Russell remained unbeaten on 16 in the unbroken fifth wicket stand of 70 runs with the opener.
"We were quite happy at halfway, at no stage did England get away," West Indies captain Darren Sammy said. "We have belief among ourselves in this format. We will go out and try to entertain."
Earlier, Joe Root top-scored with 48 off 36 balls with three fours and a six after England were put in to bat. Root featured in a productive 55-run second wicket stand with Alex Hales, who made 28 which featured three successive boundaries off leg-spinner Samuel Badree.
Jos Buttler and captain Eoin Morgan took charge late in the innings after Root was caught at mid off in the 15th over, giving Russell his second wicket.
Buttler smashed three sixes in a brief cameo of 30 runs before he holed out in the deep but Morgan remained unbeaten on 27 off 14 balls as England scored 59 runs in the last five overs.
Russell took 2-36 while Dwayne Bravo gave away 17 runs in the last over to finish with 2-41.
"We never really took the game away from them," Morgan said.
"Gayle is a hard guy to stop and West Indies didn't allow us to get going on what was a really good batting surface."
Brief Scores
West Indies 183 for 4 (Gayle 100*) beat England 182 for 6 (Root 48, Russell 2-36) by six wickets
KING OF SIXES
*Chris Gayle became the first player in Twenty20 Internationals to score two centuries in the World Twenty20. He smashed 117 in the 2007 World Cup against South Africa in Johannesburg.
*Against England he smashed 11 sixes and in the process, he became the leading six-hitter in Twenty20 Internationals, going past Brendon McCullum's tally of 91 sixes. He achieved the feat in just 46 games, compared to McCullum's 70 matches
*Notched up his 14th fifty in Twenty20 internationals, which is the most by any batsman. Virat Kohli is close behind with 13 fifties along with Brendon McCullum.
* He becomes the only batsman to hit 10 sixes or more in a Twenty20 International twice. He smashed 10 sixes in the 2007 World Cup match against South Africa in Johannesburg.
*The Jamaican left-hander is the leading run-getter in Twenty20s with over 8700 runs at a whopping average of over 43 and a strike-rate close to 150.
* Gayle holds the record for the highest individual score in the Twenty20 format. He smashed 175 for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in the 2013 edition of the IPL in Bangalore.
