Gayle smashes double century

Chris Dhambarage reporting from Galle

Dashing opener Chris Gayle took the West Indies off to a flying start with a magnificent double century on the opening day of the first cricket Test match against Sri Lanka which began at the Galle International Stadium yesterday.

The 31 year old left hander powered his way to score a blistering 219 not out as the visitors went on to amass a formidable 362 for 2 wickets after skipper Darren Sammy had won the toss and elected to bat first.

Gayle’s double hundred had a great amount of significance as he reached the three figure mark for the first time against Sri Lanka while playing in his 89th Test match for his country.

This time he dropped anchor to play a more matured innings with a tremendous amount of concentration and determination with a great amount of support from his fellow opener Adrian Barath and debutant Darren Bravo.

Incidentally the century opening partnership between Gayle and Barath was only the second in four years for the West Indies. Gayle was associated in the previous occasion too where he put on 143 runs along with Darren Ganga against India at St. Kitts way back in June 2006.

Gayle was involved in another piece of history together with Darren Bravo as the pair shattered the previous second wicket partnership record of 134 runs against Sri Lanka set by the pair of Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan at Providence in March, 2008. Their 196 run stand also marked the highest ever partnership for any wicket for the West Indies against Sri Lanka while beating the previous best of 194 runs for the third wicket held by Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarvan in November 2001 at the SSC ground in Maitland Place.

New opening batsman Adrian Barath playing only in his fourth Test match for the West Indies struck an elegant half century inclusive of eight boundaries.

This was in fact the only success for the Sri Lankans during the opening session as their bowlers struggled without two of their star players’ paceman Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Gayle continued his batting assault on the home side during the final session as well and went on to complete his third Test hundred while hoisting eight sixes and 23 boundaries from 221 balls.

This was in fact Gayle’s highest score in overseas and the highest at this venue by an overseas batsman.

WEST INDIES                 1st innngs:

C. Gayle not out			219
A. Barath c M. Jayawardene b Randiv	 50
Darren Bravo c Samaraweera b Mendis	 58
S. Chanderpaul not out			 20

EXTRAS (lb5, nb8, w2)			 15
TOTAL (for two wickets; 90 overs)	362
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-110 (Barath), 2-306 (Darren Bravo).
BOWLING: Thushara 13-2-53-0, Prasad 15-2-63-0 (nb7, w1), Mendis 29-1-90-1 (nb1), Randiv 32-1-144-1 (w1), Dilshan 1-0-7-0.