Skipper shakes off rust, now he's all fired up!
06/02/10
Chris Gayle poised in the nets.
West Indies captain Chris Gayle spent two hours in the nets at the MCG on Saturday morning and said he is fully ready – mentally and physically to fight against the Aussies in the upcoming One-Day Series.
The skipper blasted 146 off 89 balls in the warm-up match against the Australia Prime Minister’s XI on Thursday, but said afterwards was still feeling “a bit rusty” after recently recovering from an injury.
On Saturday the imposing six-footer hit just about everything out of the middle of the bat and then had a stint with the ball, sending down his clever off-spin. Afterwards he said he was happy with the work-out and was looking forward to the contest at the 90 000-seater stadium.
“I felt good in the nets. It felt better than I did in Canberra so hopefully I will be able to get a good start tomorrow, move on from there to get a good score and help the team to start the series on a winning note,” Gayle said after Saturday’s training session. “Over here suits my batting a bit more [than in other countries]. With the bounce and pace and the ball coming onto the bat makes it good place for me to perform. It has been a good summer for me so hopefully I can carry on and it would be nice to start on a high, but most of all I want a victory for us.”
The first ODI will be at the MCG in Melbourne on Sunday. First ball is 2:25 pm (Saturday 11:25 pm Eastern Caribbean Time/10:25 pm Jamaica Time).
The 30-year-old Gayle is one of the most powerful hitters in the history of the game. He has an impressive ODI record with 7 429 runs in 205 matches at an average of 39.94 and a strike rate of 83. He has 19 centuries – the most by a West Indian.
“I am looking for a few more hundreds in this format of the game and I am looking to lead the West Indies and do the job.”
