You guys should be happy to still see me on the field: Gayle

A vintage knock from Chris Gayle aided with skipper Nicholas Pooran’s calm approach helped West Indies thrash Australia by six wickets in the third T20I on Monday (local time). With this win, West Indies secured T20I series victory over Australia with two more games to go. “My main focus is the World Cup. Don’t mind the numbers, Chris Gayle not getting the runs, soon to be 42. You guys should be happy to see Chris Gayle on the field still, hopefully Chris will last as long as possible. Cherish those moments, commentators don’t put up no stats about Chris Gayle not scoring a half-century. Just respect the Universe Boss, let him play cricket and have some fun. Enjoy the moment with Chris Gayle, a strong West Indies team and some good youngsters,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Gayle as saying.

A quality death bowling from West Indies had restricted Australia to 141/6 before the host chased down the total comfortably with 31 balls to spare. During the run chase, Gayle also became the first player to smash 14000 runs in the shortest format of the game. “It’s a great journey. I’m so happy and so pleased to get a series win first of all. I just want to commend the stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran for winning a fantastic series against a great team. To Kieron Pollard, he played a big part as well even though he played in none of these games. You all knew I was struggling with the bat and to be able to get some runs today was very pleasing,” said Gayle.

“I want to dedicate this half-century and milestone to West Indies, my team-mates, especially Kieron Pollard. We had a team meeting before the game and…he let me know where I stand within this team and he wanted me to go and express myself. So, I’m very grateful for that pep talk because sometimes it doesn’t matter how great you are, you need a bit of a talk sometimes,” he added. Australia and West Indies will now lock horns in the fourth T20I of the five-match series on Thursday.