I saw an ODI double century and nearly didn’t rate it

This column reads very differently to how it was going to when words first hit the screen.

But such was the transformation in Chris Gayle in his record-smashing innings yesterday at Manuka Oval in Canberra, that it was impossible to have the same opinion by the end of it.

For the record, Gayle’s 215 is the first ever World Cup double hundred, surpassing Gary Kirsten’s 188no against the UAE in Rawalpindi in the 1996 tournament.

It’s the third highest score in ODI history, but the first ODI 200 by someone other than an Indian player, and the first outside India.

It’s the highest ever one-day score in Australia (by a male, before anyone picks me up), beating Mark Waugh’s 173 against the West Indies at the MCG back in 2001.

Gayle now has a Test triple century, an ODI double century, and was the first player to record a Twenty20 international century.

Gayle and Marlon Samuels came together on the third ball of the match, and batted right through the innings, with Gayle out off the last ball. Together, they added 372, the highest partnership in the history of the 50-over game.

Gayle’s innings was extraordinary for so many reasons, but none more so than the breakdown of his score, and the acceleration within.

His first 50 came from 51 balls, and his second from 54 balls. He then went from 100 to 150 in 21 balls, before the final 50 was raised in 12 balls. Twelve freaking balls!

From 151*, Gayle’s last 20 balls went: 6 4 6 4 6 6 6 1 6 1 4 4 1 1 2 1 2 2 1 out.

His 215 came from 147 balls all told, with 10 fours and a whopping 16 sixes. Gayle and Samuels added a staggering 157 from the last 10 overs.

Samuels finished 133 not out from 156 balls, also coming to life in the back end of his innings, after reaching his fifty in 95 balls.

The early part of the innings gave no indication of likely fireworks. In fact, it was damn near sleep inducing, crawling to 1/92 from the first 20 overs. And this was where I was starting to get annoyed.

Watching Chris Gayle bat of late has been an exercise in desperate hope. So much of the West Indies’ chance in any given game hangs on Gayle’s hefty bat, but he’s been battling like a middle-order clubman.

He survived an LBW referral second ball he faced, only by virtue of being giving not out, and in which Hawkeye may have been rather generous.

In the opening overs he looked tentative, his front foot leaden to the crease, as he waved his bat across the line. He got an early boundary away, but more often than not found himself in trouble against the Zimbabwe opening bowlers, Tenashe Panyangara and Tendai Chatara – who bowls surprisingly rapid for a paceman not fond of using his front arm.

Gayle’s modus operandi for his first 80-odd was just swinging the bat. He’s never moved his feet much anyway, and in recent years he’s made Virender Sehwag look like Fred Astaire. Essentially, if the ball is full he’ll clear the front leg and just swing hard – in any direction. He’s strong enough that edges and miscues will still find the boundary. If the ball is back of a length, then he plonks the front foot down the line of leg stump and swings around it.

At one stage, he decided a slog sweep was the shot to play to a slightly back-of-a-length ball outside the line of a second set of stumps. To say it looked ‘agricultural’ is offensive to country cricketers.

In the last two years, Gayle has averaged less than 20 in ODIs and was dumped by the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League. Think about just how damning that is, being told the worst T20 team in Australia doesn’t require your services any longer.

At the end of the 29th over, I was surprised to see him 89 not out, because he hadn’t looked in control at all to that point, and I’m not convinced he’d middled one.

In fact it was only when he crawled through the 90s, taking more than 20 balls to do it, that he finally looked like he knew what he was doing. And to be fair, if I hadn’t made an ODI ton in more than 18 months, I’d be making sure I got there as well.

From there, he just went bang. I’ve never seen the shackles broken in such spectacular fashion, and by the end of it, Gayle’s feet were moving and he was middling everything. It was some return to form.

Of the three World Cup games to be played in Canberra, this game was the one with the slowest ticket sales, and was the hardest sell overall. After the Windies got touched up by Ireland, it was very difficult to have much confidence in their cricket. But those who did take the punt on this game were rewarded with a historic performance, and I suspect in time there will be far more than just the 5,544 in attendance.

But I’m very glad I was one of them. Even if I thought Gayle’s first hundred wasn’t much chop.