Chris Gayle had the perfect answer to all the ‘know alls’ who were questioning his place in the West Indies team. The answer devastated poor Zimbabwe on Tuesday as they were clobbered to all parts of the ground as Gayle set up record after record.

He got to his first hundred in what could be termed a ‘pedestrian’ way with a run a ball effort and then went berserk with his next hundred coming in only 33 balls which is just two more than what A.B. de Villiers took to hit the fastest one-day century just a month or so back.

Gayle went past Gary Kirsten’s score of 188 to become the highest individual scorer in a World Cup match whilst also becoming the first to score a double century at the tournament. He also shared with Marlon Samuels the highest partnership, going past Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.

If that doesn’t shut up the doubters, nothing will. Of course there will be the eternal ones who will suggest that he got it against Zimbabwe’s not too fancied attack but then how come nobody else had done it against the same attack before.

Gayle belongs to the old school of West Indies cricket who lives life in the fastest lane and by his own rules. It is therefore tough for such people to always conform to the ways of a team structure and processes. He is therefore an easy target for the anonymous ‘know alls’ who if they were better occupied would have been doing something productive in life rather than be destructive about one of the greatest entertainers the sport has ever seen.

Gayle by the way is the only cricketer in the world to have a triple century in Test cricket, a double century in the one-day game and a century in T20 internationals too. So he is definitely special and special people need to be treated separately, even in a team environment.

West Indies have now won two games on the trot after being surprised by Ireland in their first game. They now play pre-tournament favourites South Africa on Friday with the Proteas looking to get back to winning ways after the drubbing from India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The men from the Caribbean, meanwhile, will be worried about their bowling as they allowed Zimbabwe to get to 280 in their reply. That is simply not good enough against a team like South Africa with the batting line-up that they have. The discipline that the bowling needs is simply not there and it keeps leaking runs. They did bowl well against Pakistan on a helpful pitch and if they can replicate that performance then they will be well served.

South Africa have the task of lifting themselves up from the floor and they will be wary of the unpredictable Caribbean boys. They know that they need to raise not just their game but the net run rate as well and so will be looking to come hard against Gayle and company.

With Vernon Philander ruled out due to the hamstring injury that prevented him from bowling more than four overs against India, the Proteas will be one bowler short and whether they will look to replace him with a seamer or a batsman remains to be seen. Whatever they do, they have to win and win big.

By Special Arrangement for Dawn

Published in Dawn February 26th , 2015

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