On this day in 2017: Chris Gayle became first batter to reach 10000-run mark in T20 cricket

The West Indies run-machine Chris Gayle has been the ‘universal boss’ of T20 cricket for a long time. Five years back, he became the first cricketer to etch his name in history books after he reached the 10000 run-mark in T20 cricket.

On 18 April 2017, the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot witnessed a momentous event as the Jamaican big hitter achieved the feat in the Indian Premier League match between his side Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujrat Lions.

Gayle had missed two encounters for fitness issues. In the face-off against the Lions, he replaced the injured AB de Villiers and headed to the crease with RCB’s then skipper Virat Kohli with just three runs short of the milestone.

The opportunity came in the fourth over bowled by Basil Thampi. After facing a couple of dots, finally, the swashbuckling left-handed batter threw his horizontal blade to steer an outside-off delivery to the third man and got a quick single. Thus, he became the first cricketer to achieve the 10000-run landmark in the T20 format. The giant of T20 cricket took 285 innings to reach the goal with a 40-plus batting average.

Gayle who was playing his 290th T20 game continued his show and played a brilliant knock of 77 runs facing 38 deliveries with a notable strike rate of 202.63. That memorable innings was laced with five fours and seven maximums. On that day, he also played an important role in RCB’s victory over Gujrat Lions by 21 runs. He was the best performer with the bat for his unit and was awarded the player of the match title.

In the post-match interview, the man with a golden heart thanked the Bangalore franchise as well as the West Indies Cricket Board for supporting him always. He also expressed his thoughts about putting the bat that he used to clinch the record, on auction, promising to use the proceedings for charity.

After making his T20 debut in 2005, Gayle represented different franchises in various T20 leagues around the globe. So far, he has reached the tally of 14562 runs, appearing in 463 matches. He also holds the record for the highest individual score (175 runs) in the shortest format of cricket. However, one of the most loved batters of cricket decided to opt out from the IPL 2022 auction list for an unknown reason.

Former Indian captain Virat Kohli, later on, joined Gayle in the 10000-run club.

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