In an hour-and-a-quarter of awesome power-hitting hereyesterday, Chris Gayle broke from the shackles of self-doubtthat have enmeshed him for the past five weeks and the realChris Gayle emerged
Tony Cozier17-Dec-2001In an hour-and-a-quarter of awesome power-hitting hereyesterday, Chris Gayle broke from the shackles of self-doubtthat have enmeshed him for the past five weeks and the realChris Gayle emerged.The tall, young Jamaican left-hander had been so transfixedby the rarity of failure that brought him a sequence of foursuccessive ducks he often stood at the crease with all themobility of Nelson’s Statue.For half-hour in the last and decisive qualifying roundmatch against Zimbabwe to see which would qualify forWednesday’s final of the LG Abans (the sponsors who are SriLanka’s equivalent of Courts) triangular One-Day series,there was no change.Gayle could hardly lay bat on ball and didn’t score hisfirst run until his 16th ball. Suddenly, out of a clear bluesky, a change in the bowling and a thumping off-drivenboundary led to an immediate transformation.TransformationClark Kent had become Superman and even Superman, fasterthan a flying bullet as he might be, would have been hardpressed to stop the missiles that began to fly from Gayle’sblade.Travis Friend, a lively but rookie 20-year-old, wasblistered for four fours in his first over on changing ends.Olonga, the mop-haired fast bowler who is Zimbabwe’s mostidentifiable black cricketer, went for three more throughthe off-side in the next over before the usually agilefielders had time to blink.Gary Brent’s first ball of the tournament was lashed, crossbatted, into the vacant seats at long-on for six.He had taken pain-killing injections in a shoulder to playand might have considered the sacrifice not worth it. Anover later, he was being despatched for three moreboundaries.By the time Gayle blasted off-spinner Doug Marillier toextra-cover and Olonga swooped to his left to hang on to ablistering catch, he had made 85 from 79 balls effectively63 balls, given his start with the six and 17, yes 17,fours. In other words, he collected 72 runs without needingto run.It was a reversion to the clean hitting that brought him somany runs in Zimbabwe and Kenya on the previous tour andover the past two seasons in the West Indies.Brian Lara, watching with his injured left elbow inplastercast but otherwise comfortable, would have done itwith more style. But he couldn’t have hit the ball harder.By the time he was out with the West Indies 121 for tworequiring 155, the match was all but over, and RamnareshSarwan and Ryan Hinds, the 20-year-old left-hander on debut,settled it with less spectacular methods.Given all the circumstances of a difficult tour, Gayle’sexplosive display, witnessed by no more than 1 200 or so atthe ground but appreciably more on television, was a joy.But it should be put into perspective. Only one of hisboundaries was off Heath Streak, Zimbabwe’s leading bowler,and he was not as convincing against the off-spin ofMarillier and Trevor Gripper as against the medium-pacers.Different storyWednesday night will be different but if he gets going, theSri Lankans will be in for a shock. At least the West Indieshave the chance of going home with something to show andthey did beat the hosts at the same Premadasa Stadium, venuefor the final, under lights in an earlier match.Gayle finished yesterday’s contest off with his blitz. PedroCollins and Corey Collymore, the Bajans from Boscobelle, andDarryl Brown, the Trinidadian from McBean on hisinternational debut, set it up at the start of the day.Collins had two wickets and Collymore one in their sharpopening bursts and Brown followed up with the next threefrom ten controlled and consecutive medium-paced overs.Had it not been for the tactical timidity that is typical ofthe leadership of this team, Gayle would not have had theopportunity to score half as many as he did because Zimbabweshouldn’t have managed half their total.Sent in, they were 53 for seven and in retreat when captainCarl Hooper withdrew his assault troops and let theopposition regroup.No pressureTo deep-set fields, without a soul close to the bat, theexperienced Streak gathered his singles and twos under notthe slightest pressure from the straightforward slow stuffof Hooper, Gayle and Hinds.He scored 57 from 88 balls with a swept six off Hinds’ leftarm spin and four fours with simple methods and shepherdedFriend, the No. 9, through a partnership of 60 from 17 oversand Brent, the No. 10, through a further 29.It was, to use the analogy of an altogether more seriouscontest a few thousand miles off here, as if the Americanshad halted their bombardment of Kandahar, the NorthernAlliance pulled back once they had taken Kabul and theTaliban was given breathing space to recover.It was a lack of decisiveness and toughness. This wasZimbabwe, after all, not Australia or South Africa, and acouple of young lower order Zimbabweans at that.And it was as crystal clear as the day itself that Collinsand Collymore were itching to finish it off themselves whenthey were removed after seven overs each. What it toldZimbabwe was that the West Indies expected trouble so thetwo main bowlers had to be saved when it came.Collins forced an edge from Dion Ebrahim first ball thatHooper dropped low to his right at slip and then rattledGrant Flower’s off-stump with a full length inswinger.Collymore took care of Ebrahim with a sharp breakback andCollins did Stuart Carlisle with one run across him.Collymore was running hot as he rattled Craig Wishart’shelmet with a bouncer before Hooper’s underarm hit ran himout but that was soon the end of the blitz.Brown, who took over from Collins, got rid of his earlynerves by finding Gripper’s edge with eighth ball andfollowed up with the prized wicket of Andy Flower, lbw to aperfectly pitched delivery from round the wicket, andMariller to Hooper’s sprawling catch at short extra-cover.It was time to bring back the heavy artillery while theadrenaline was still pumping through their veins. Instead,Hooper, the pacifist, elected for more conciliatory methods.It was left to Gayle to resume the barrage on thebeleaguered opposition.