Chris Gayle’s double century helps West Indies post mammoth total of 372 against Zimbabwe in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015

West Indies posted a mammoth total of 372 against Zimbabwe in match 15 of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 at Manuka Oval in Canberra on Tuesday. Chris Gayle was undoubtedly the highlight of the match scoring a double hundred and becoming the fourth batsmen to do so in world cricket. He also along with Marlon Samuels put up the highest partnership in ODIs, same as of the total. Catch live updates of the match between West Indies and Zimbabwe here

Earlier, West Indies skipper, Jason Holder won the toss and elected to bat first. West Indies made a couple of change in the playing XI as Darren Bravo misses the game with torn hamstring and is replaced by Jonathan Carter, while Sulieman Benn is replaced by Nikita Miller. Zimbabwe on the other hand made a change in the form of Solomon Mire, who is replaced by Stuart Matsikenyeri.

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West Indies were off to a shaky start as they lost opener Dwayne Smith in the very second ball of the day after Tinashe Panyangara bowled him up with a beautiful in swinging good length delivery. Fellow opener, Gayle too survived a scare in the very same over form the same man, after he was given not out for a leg-before appeal. On being reviewed, Zimbabwe lost the appeal as hawk-eye confirmed the ball just clipping the bail and the decision stands as umpire’s call. Live scorecard: West Indies vs Zimbabwe

The decision turned out to be a nightmare for the Zimbabweans as it was Gayle who went on a rampage thereon to bring up his highest individual score in ODIs. He started of comfortably smashing few boundaries and couple of sixes to bring up his 47th half-century. he continued his brilliance as the Zimbabwean bowlers struggled to get any further break through and Gayle also comfortably sailed to his 26th ODI century.

Prior to his century, he also completed his 9,000 runs in ODIs, thus becoming the 16th batsman in the world and the 4th west Indian to do so. He was also the fourth cricketer to have scored 9,000 ODI runs and claim more than 150 wickets in the limited over format.

As soon as Gayle reached his century, there was no stopping him as he took apart the Zimbabwe bowling attack, be it pacers and spinners and quickly reached his 150 in just 126 deliveries. Marlon Samuels too scored his half-century off 95 balls. However, by now, it was all about Gayle and it took him just 12 deliveries to reach his 200 mark, thus breaking Gary Kirsten’s record of highest score in World Cup of 188.

Following his double century, it was Samuels, who got into the groove and too brought up his eighth century in ODIs. It was followed by few power-hitting by him and in the final delivery, it was Gayle to be dismissed for 215, but the damaged was done until as West Indies registered a mammoth total of 372, asking Zimbabwe 373 to win the encounter, which surely is an uphill task.

Both the batsmen also put up an all-time record ODI partnership same as that of the score. The score itself was the partnership as Smith was dismissed when the team had even failed to open their account.

Brief Scores: West Indies 372 for 2 in 50 overs (Chris Gayle 215, Marlon Samuels 133*; Hamiltom Masakadza 1 for 39) vs Zimbabwe.

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(Ayush Gupta is a reporter at CricketCountry. A passionate supporter of Manchester United, he idolises Roger Federer)