Chris Gayle has become the 14th batsman to reach 10,000 runs in one-day international cricket after hitting a brilliant 162 against England on Wednesday.
The big-hitting opener, now 39, announced he will retire from ODI cricket after this summer’s World Cup.
His form in the current one-day series against England, which has featured knocks of 135, 50 and 162, has taken him past the 10,000 mark and makes him only the second West Indian, after Brian Lara, to reach five figures.
Here, Press Association Sport takes a look at how Gayle measures up to the “10,000 club”, as well as his record against England.
Chasing Lara
Gayle is just over 300 runs away from becoming the Windies’ all-time ODI top scorer, with 10,074 runs to Lara’s 10,405.
With one more match of the series against England, a tri-series with Ireland and Bangladesh, the World Cup plus warm-up games to come before he rides into the sunset, Gayle – who averages 38.15 in ODIs – will have hopes of overhauling the great Trinidadian.
Passing Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan (10,290) and then Lara would take Gayle to 12th on the all-time list, which appears the limit of his ambitions – the next two batsmen in his sights, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, are still playing and then comes another Indian, Rahul Dravid, over 800 runs ahead of Gayle on 10,889.
Sachin Tendulkar leads the all-time list on 18,426, comfortably ahead of Kumar Sangakkara on 14,234 and former Australia captain Ricky Ponting with 13,704. Two more Sri Lankans, Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardene, complete the top five.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Jacques Kallis and Sourav Ganguly are the other players in the exclusive club, with the latter making it five Indians among the 13 players.
Gayle’s ODI average is lower than all but Jayawardene (33.37) and Jayasuriya (32.36) but he has hit more sixes than any of the 10,000 club.
Favoured opponents
England are one of three opponents against whom Gayle has scored over 1,000 ODI runs.
Zimbabwe are his favourite opponents, allowing him 1,549 runs at an average of almost 62, with 11 half-centuries and three hundreds in 30 innings. He has also hit 1,241 runs against India.
Gayle has made four hundreds and seven fifties against England, with a best score of 162 coming in Grenada on Wednesday. Only Zimbabwe and Australia have been on the end of more half-centuries from Gayle, who has seven against the latter.
