Gayle first to 10,000 T20 runs

West Indies’ T20 batting legend Chris Gayle became the first batsman to score 10,000 Twenty20 runs when he reached three during the ongoing Indian Premier League match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Lions in Rajkot. 

The Jamaican power hitter edged a delivery from Basil Thampi down to third man to pick up his third run in the fourth over of the match, in the process bringing up the landmark. He celebrated in typical Gayle style, hitting his next delivery from the same bowler over long off for six. 

Gayle has played 290 T20 matches, 50 of which he has played for West Indies between February 2016 and April 2016. He scored 1519 runs for West Indies at 35.32, hitting two centuries. One of the first and certainly the most sought-after free agents in T20 cricket around the world, Gayle’s other 240 matches have been played variously in different T20 leagues around the world -- IPL (Royal Challengers Bangalore), the Bangladesh Premier League (Barisal Burners and Dhaka Gladiators), Pakistan Super League (Karachi Kings and Lahore Qalandars), the Caribbean Premier League (Jamaica Tallawahs), the Big Bash League (Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder), etc. 

In those matches Gayle has hit a further 16 hundreds and scored at a surreal average/ strike rate combination of 40.47 and 149.2. 

He is a bit of a Bradman figure in T20 batsmanship – the next-highest run-scorer is Brendon McCullum with 7,524, who is also second on the centuries list with seven. Gayle has 18. Gayle also has the highest ever T20 score – 175 not out for RCB against Pune Warriors in April 2013.