Gayle takes Zimbabwe to cleaners

Zimbabwe 155 West Indies 393-3

Tony Cozier
Saturday 21 July 2001 00:00 BST
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Powered by a boundary-laden 175 from the left-handed opener Chris Gayle – his maiden Test hundred – the West Indies continued to dominate this match with a ruthlessness rare since their glory days of the 1980s.

The 21-year-old Jamaican gave an awesome display of clean hitting that brought him 34 fours from the 256 balls he received on the second day here yesterday, helping compensate for the absence of Brian Lara, who was ruled out of the tour with a hamstring strain.

However, Gayle was lucky that umpire Rizauddin missed his thin edge to the wicket-keeper off the Zimbabwean captain, Heath Streak, when he was on 96. He and his partner, Daren Ganga, carried on from their overnight stand of 100 to 214, before Ganga, carrying a leg injury, drove a return catch to left-arm spinner Ray Price on 89.

Streak briefly lifted his team's spirits with the wickets of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and then Gayle, who was beaten by a change of pace and scooped a catch to mid-on, before Carl Hooper and Ramnaresh Sarwan stroked 18 boundaries between them in an unbroken partnership of 104 in the final hour.

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