The first ever One Day International (ODI) was played back in 1971 and it took nearly 40 years for a batsman to cross the magical 200-run mark in a single innings – the little master Sachin Tendulkar doing so in 2010 in an ODI against South Africa. However, all these batting records started to look really small with the dawn of the T20 format of the game.
Known as a batsman’s game, it’s not uncommon to see big hitting and massive scores, both for teams as well as individuals. As you see above, it took nearly 4 decades for us to witness the first ODI double hundred but less than a decade into the T20 game, someone nearly scored a double century. And this happened in the 2013 edition of the prestigious Indian Premier League!
If you asked me to put some money on someone who would own the record of the highest ever T20 score, I would’ve earned quite a buck because all my money would’ve been on the Universe Boss, Chris Gayle. It’s not for nothing that he owns this name, and it’s not for nothing that he owns several records in T20 cricket, with a tally of 10,000 career runs in the T20 format.
SEE ALSO: List of bookmakers accepting bets from India
He’s sizzled crowds around the world and while it’s great to watch him blast sixes across every corner of the park on his day, you’ve got to feel for the bowlers. On this afternoon of 23rd April 2013, Gayle walked out to bat with Tillakaratne Dilshan at the top of the innings for Royal Challengers Bangalore against the now defunct Pune Warriors India, and the rest, like they say, is all history.
Not a soul in the stadium will forget that match as what followed was carnage in that IPL 2013 game, with Gayle hammering 175(66)* as RCB propelled themselves to 263/5, with the next best individual score being just 31(8) by a certain AB de Villiers. It’s been 7 years since that high-octane knock and Gayle still holds the records for the highest ever individual IPL score, and highest overall T20 score as well.
It’s been 12 years of the Indian Premier League and no one has come close to that score of 175* except for Kiwi Brendon McCullum, who scored 158* in the opening game of IPL 2008. Gayle hit 13 fours and clobbered 17 sixes that day, which is also an IPL record. Incidentally, Gayle owns 3 of the top 5 records in the list of most individual sixes in an IPL game (updated 2nd June 2020).
SEE ALSO: List of fantasy sports websites in India
263 that RCB got to is also still an IPL record and it’s going to take another alien-ish innings from a batsman like Gayle to beat this team score. However, you have to feel for the bowlers in situations like these. Indian left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza conceded 45 runs in 2 overs, Aaron Finch bowled a single over for 29 runs and Mitchell Marsh was also taken to the cleaners, conceding 56 runs in 3 overs!
Pune managed only 133/9 and RCB registered a whopping 130-run victory that day, and the celebrations would’ve not ended that night. Needless to say, Gayle was awarded Man of the Match and he even picked 2/5 in a single over with the ball, just to have some fun after that show he put on with the bat earlier in the day. This was his 4th personal entry in the list of all-time IPL centuries.
We’ll keep bringing you some of the best flashbacks in IPL and world cricketing history, so stay tuned to ReadScoops.com for more…
