GAYLE Storm Smashes Pune Warriors

It’s been a day of records in the history of IPL where Chris Gayle (RCB) holds most of it. In the Royal Challengers Bangalore - Pune Warriors India IPL clash, Gayle's fireworks will be remembered by cricket fans for long time.  With his stunning shots, RCB scored the highest T20 score - 263 for five wickets in their 20 overs. "It was one of those days. I got a good total. I can't say it's a decent total - it's a good total. All I had for breakfast this morning was a plain omelet, two pancakes and a hot chocolate." Gayle said after his brutal innings. 

Fastest Century in T20:

Chris Gayle's 30-ball century is fastest ever in IPL. Chris Gayle set a new record for the fastest century in professional cricket by reaching 100 off 30 balls. He scored 175 not out in just 66 balls with 17 sixes and 13 boundaries. He beats the previous 34-ball ton Twenty20 league record set by Australia's Andrew Symonds.  South African Richard Levi holds the record for fastest international T20 hundred in 45 balls against New Zealand in 2011 at Hamilton.  Pakistan's Shahid Afridi holds the record of fastest century in ODI (37 balls) while Viv Richards holds the record of fastest ton (56 balls) in Test history.

Interesting Tweets on Gayle’s show:

Brian Lara: I like that one wen "Gayle bats fielders become spectators and spectators become fielders" chilling @ home watching some awesome hitting.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Life is all about taking the right decision, seeing Gayle bat today I think I took the right decision of being a wicket keeper.

Suresh Raina: A ball just flew past Chepauk! Did it come from Chinnaswamy??????

Shilpa Shetty: Unbelievable inning by Gayle! Thank God we r not at the receiving end!!ha ha ha;) Incredible...he makes it all look so easy!

Dale Steyn: Oh no... Actually, Wow!!! This is insane!!

Darren Sammy: @henrygayle he's not human..He’s a tsunami mixed with a nuclear bomb

WEST INDIES BAGS ICC WORLD T20 CUP

West Indies sealed the ICC World Twenty20 crown with a comfortable 36-run victory in the final match against Sri Lanka. It the West Indies' first world title after a gap of 33 years having won the ODI World Cup back in 1979. Batting first in front a 35,000 enthusiastic crowd, Caribbeans scored only 32 runs off the first 10 overs. With the powerful hitter Gayle in opening position, the powerplay yielded only 14 runs for West Indies due to brilliant effort by Sri Lanka’s unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis who grabbed four wickets for 12 runs. Samuels played one of the most memorable innings under pressure with a heroic 78 off 56 balls to steer West Indies to 137 for six. He hits 6 sixes off T20 specialist Lasith Malinga's bowling where almost every other batsman struggled. With the strong batting lineup, it was not a difficult score to chase but still they lost the match by 36 runs as they were bundled out for 101 runs. For Sri Lanka and Mahela Jayawardene, it was another case of 'so-near-yet-so-far' having now lost four World Cup finals (two 50 overs and two T20s) across two categories. A sense of sadness surely spread from Colombo throughout Sri Lanka on Sunday night. Mahela Jayawardene stepped down as T20 captain after the final.

Gayle and his teammates bring such uncontrolled happiness to the sport with the way the celebrated after winning the world cup. An ecstatic West Indies team did the 'Gangnam Style' dance after defeating Sri Lanka. Accidently it was birthday boy Dwayne Bravo who prompted the celebrations after catching Lasith Malinga on the boundary to end the Sri Lankan innings. He was joined by his teammates and coaching staff, sprinting onto the pitch from the sidelines, for celebrations that would go into the next day and no doubt beyond.This is a team that loves to have fun almost as much as it loves to play cricket. There’s always a smile on the faces of the West Indies players with the team full of wonderful people like Chris Gayle, the man who adopted the global hit  “Gangnam-style” dance from South Korean rapper Psy – throughout this tournament.

Man of the Match – Marlon Samuels

Man of the Tournament - Shane Watson

Spectators Pick XI - Shane Watson, Chris Gayle, Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Virat Kohli, Eoin Morgan, Michael Hussey, Brendon Mcullum (wk), Mitchell Starc, Raza Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Lasith Malinga. 

Flop XI - Richard Levi, Gautam Gambhir, Hashim Amla, Jonny Bairstow, Kamran Akmal, Kieron Pollard, Shahid Afridi, Andre Russel, Umar Gul, Tim Southee, Brad Hogg, Albie Morkel.

ICC CRICKET AWARDS - 2011

Based on the performance during period between 11 August 2010 and 3 August 2011, the LG ICC Awards 2011 were presented in association with FICA to players and officials.

England's Jonathan Trott has been named ICC Cricketer of the Year 2011. In 12 Tests, he scored 1,042 runs at an average of 65.12, including four centuries and three half-centuries. In addition, he played 24 ODIs, scoring 1,064 runs at an average of 48.36 with two centuries and nine 50s. Previous winners of the Cricketer of the Year award include Rahul Dravid (2004), Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis (joint winners in 2005), Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008), Mitchell Johnson (2009) and Sachin Tendulkar (2010) for their splendid performance.

England's Cook won the Test Cricketer award after having a prolific year in the format. Cook played 12 Tests, and in 18 innings he scored 1302 runs at an average of 76.58, including six centuries and four half-centuries.

Kumar Sangakkara named the ODI Cricketer of the Year and also picked up the People's Choice Award. He scored 1049 runs at an average of 55.21 in 25 ODIs and had 26 catches and 10 stumpings as wicketkeeper and led Sri Lanka to the final of the 2011 World Cup.

Indian captain MS Dhoni  who was given the Spirit of Cricket accolade. 

West Indies legspinner Devendra Bishoo has been given the Emerging Player Award.,  He took 21 wickets at an average of 35.42 in five Tests and also picked up 19 wickets at 21.57 each in 11 ODIs.

Ryan ten Doeschate, the Netherlands allrounder, was named the ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year for the third time in four years, and for the second year running.

New Zealand seamer Tim Southee won the award for Twenty20 International Performance of the Year, for his spell of 5 for 18 against Pakistan in Auckland. 

Pakistan umpire Aleem Dar has won the David Shepherd trophy for the Umpire of the Year for the third consecutive time. He beat competition from Steve Davis, Ian Gould and five-time winner Simon Taufel. 

Stafanie Taylor, the West Indies women's all rounder, was named the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year. 

C S K – CHAMPIONS OF CHAMPIONS

A great league, Airtel Champions League has come to an end with a wonderful closing ceremony. This huge tournament starts on 10^th Sep 2010 and lasted for 17days with huge crowd, fun and entertainment. It has been a great show in terms of boundaries, wickets, thrills and of course super over too. The champion teams from India, South Africa, Australia, West Indies and New Zealand with a total of 10teams had played and finally Chennai Super Kings sealed the Champions League Twenty20 winners with their eight-wicket victory over Warriors in the grand finale in Johannesburg. It is the first team from India to bag this title.

In the most expected final match, Warriors won the toss and had got off to a violent start with bat. It was a reverse sweep by Davy Jacobs that changed the entire complexion of the game. After his wicket, the game came into the Chennai’s control with tremendous bowling performance from R Ashwin, Muttiah Muralitharan and L Balaji. They restricted the Warriors to 128, which was never going to be tough to chase. M Vijay and Michael Hussey played both pace and spin very well providing a steady and solid start with assured knocks shutting warriors out of the contest. When Vijay and Suresh Raina fell in quick succession, Dhoni did his job well. CSK were richer by USD 2.5 millions for winning the second edition of the tournament, their second crown in five months after their IPL triumph in April. Warriors received USD 1.3 million for finishing runners-up. It was a real emotional moment as this was their last match playing as a unit as they may lose some players in the auctions. Dhoni thanked the whole crowd, their coach Stephen Fleming, Hayden, Muralitharan and Hussey for constantly helping the youngsters.

Murali Vijay is the Man of the Match for scoring 58 runs off 53 balls. Ravichandran Ashwin is the Man of the Series for taking 13 wickets in the competition. Vijay wins the golden bat for becoming the highest run scorer in the competition. Ashwin wins the Golden wickets for being the highest wicket taker in the competition. The Super Kings are now the Emperors of the T20 world. This tournament has produced some entertaining cricket, Chennai were clinical right throughout and it's been a joy covering this.

ENGLAND BAGS ICC T20 WC - 2010

The English men have finally achieved their 35 years of world cup thirsty. Many people thought England was the underdog team playing against the mighty Australians on the ICC T20 world cup 2010 final. But the results proved otherwise and England beat Australia in the finals to win the coveted title in the match held at Barbados. Right from the beginning of the match, England was on the driver seat by reducing Australia to eight for 3. Finally with the help of Hussey brothers, aussies managed to score 147 for 6. This target looked so simple after a magnificent partnership between Kieswetter and Pietersen who put on 111 runs for the second wicket partnership. Kieswetter managed 63 runs while Pieterson made 47 runs out of 31 balls, thus finished at 151 for 3 with 3 overs to spare. Kieswetter was named the man of the match and Kevin Pietersen was adjudged the man of the tournament after his many match winning contributions to his team.

So far England managed to reach the finals of three world cup in 1979, 1987 and 1992 but lost on all three occasions. With four imports like Lumb, Kieswetter, Pietersen and Morgan, England looked more like an IPL team with four foreign players. However, finally they have achieved this hard target. Kudos to England and Paul Collingwood, who led the team to the finals. Mahela Jayawardene (SL) remains highest scorer of this tournament. On the other hand, Australian women bags the same title in women cricket.