If Rashid Khan comes on I’m going to finish him: KL Rahul reveals how Chris Gayle demolished Sunrisers Hyderabad
KL Rahul was talking about the Kings XI Punjab vs Sunrisers Hyderabad match in IPL 2018 in which Chris Gayle slammed his sixth IPL ton to single-handedly take KXIP to victory.
On his day, which comes more often than not, Chris Gayle can be a nightmare for bowlers in T20 cricket. Most sixes, most centuries, highest score – you name a T20 batting record and the West Indies opener has it all. And he does this all mostly with a stoic expression and sometimes with a big smile but rarely in anger. India batsman and Gayle’s Kings Punjab teammate KL Rahul was, therefore, taken aback when he saw an ‘angry and hungry’ Gayle talking about ‘finishing’ Rashid Khan during an IPL match.
Rahul was talking about the Kings XI Punjab vs Sunrisers Hyderabad match in IPL 2018 in which Gayle slammed his sixth IPL ton to single-handedly take KXIP to victory.
Rahul, who had opened with Gayle in that match, said the West Indian had vouched to attack Rashid Khan as he did not like the leg-spinner staring at him.
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“I remember one instance in 2018, he (Chris Gayle) was hungry, he was angry, and he wanted to win. We had a match against the Sunrisers, and he told me, ‘If Rashid Khan comes on, I am gonna finish him because I don’t like a spinner coming and staring me down. If he stares at me, I am going to finish him’,” KL Rahul said in a conversation with Mayank Agarwal and Gayle on Open Nets with ‘Mayank’ chat show posted by IPL on their website.
Rahul further added that Gayle urged him to give the strike as he wanted to take on Rashid Khan, who was SRH’s main strike bowler along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
“He (Gayle) said, ‘Give me the single, I want to play six balls against Rashid Khan’. And I think that’s the first time I saw Chris’ give-me-this attitude. He had a clear plan and I think he got a hundred that game,” said Rahul. “You can just tell when he is in the zone.”
Gayle had batted through scoring 102 off 63 balls leading KXIP to 193/3 batting first. Like promised the West Indian had taken apart Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, smashing him for 42 off 16 balls at a strike rate of 262.50.
Rashid Khan, whose economy rate is around 6 runs per over in IPL, had figures of 1 for 55 in that match.
Kings XI won that match by 15 runs as SRH managed 178 for 4 in their 20 overs.
Both Rahul and Gayle would have returned to play for Kings XI this year in IPL had the Covid-19 pandemic did not force BCCI to postpone the 13th edition of the tournament indefinitely.