Don’t blush, baby, but Chris Gayle has gone ballistic for another of his Twenty20 sides, belting a spectacular 60 off just 34 balls in the Pakistan Super League.
Playing for the Lahore Qalandars, Gayle upstaged fellow T20 warrior Kevin Pietersen, who scored 34 off 21 balls at No.3 for the Quetta Gladiators.
But the England exile had the last laugh as Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi managed to strike a boundary off the last ball of the game to secure a two-wicket win for Quetta.
In typical Gayle fashion, the big left-hander cracked more than half his runs in sixes, landing half a dozen before Umar Akmal (55 off 25) and Dwayne Bravo (20 off 17) guided the Qalandars to 2-201. But the impressive total wasn’t enough with Kumar Sangakkara (37 off 26) helping lead the successful chase.
Gayle attracted controversy during the recent Big Bash League in Australia when he effectively propositioned television presenter Mel McLaughlin during an on-air interview early last month.
The batsman told McLaughlin he wanted to be interviewed by her “just to see your eyes for the first time”.
“Hopefully we can win this game and we can have a drink after,” he added, before telling an embarrassed McLaughlin: “Don’t blush, baby.”
Gayle was fined $10,000 by his side, Melbourne Renegades.
Gayle later said “there wasn’t any harm done” and his comments were “blown out of proportion”
“There wasn’t anything at all meant to be disrespectful to Mel, or offensive,” he said.
“If she felt that way, then I am really sorry for that. There wasn’t any harm meant. It was a simple joke.”
Gayle then made light of the situation by making similar comments to former Australian player Tom Moody during an interview at the PSL earlier this week. (Sunday Morning Herald)
