COOLIDGE, Antigua (CMC) Stanford Superstars captain Chris Gayle has admitted to feeling enormous pressure en route to guiding his side to their rich and historic victory in the Stanford Twenty20 for 20 match Saturday night.
Gayle, also the West Indies captain, brilliantly led them to 10-wicket victory against England for the US$20-million prize at the Stanford Cricket Ground.
The big left-hander closed the unexpectedly one-sided show with a smashing trademark six – off pacer Andrew Flintoff – over long-off that took the Superstars to 101 without loss after being set 100 to win.
But the 29-year-old Jamaican’s cool deportment throughout belied what he was really feeling inside.
‘This is the most pressure I have ever felt, coming into this game,’ he said.
‘We created history. If anyone said to me that one game would bring so much pressure I’d have said it was a lie.
‘I’m just happy and grateful it’s come to an end. I’ll be taking a couple of days to myself, definitely, because I’ve been really, really stressed out,’ he added after the victory that earned each player in the team US$1 million each.
It was the richest team prize ever for a single sporting match.
Almost everything Gayle did in the lucrative exhibition match appeared to be perfect.
He lost the toss but his judgment in bowling changes, the confidence and support he earned from his players, his run-out of top-scorer Samit Patel, and finally his blistering unbeaten 65 off 45 balls with five fours and fives sixes that steered the Superstars to victory, all made him a strong candidate for the man of the match.
That honour actually went to the splendidly steady and combative Darren Sammy.
Bothered by the illness of his father and brother (heart trouble) recently that forced him to break camp briefly, Gayle had other stumbling blocks last week when he injured a finger in training, and then last Thursday when – already short of match practice – he was dismissed for a second-ball ‘duck’ against Middlesex in the last warm-up for the big money match.
Gayle said that his outwardly unemotional demeanour concealed the mental strain he endured for the game.
‘The thing is with me, no one can tell when I’m under pressure because I don’t show emotion much.
‘If something’s wrong you don’t know, but that’s just the person I am. Sometimes I keep so many things inside – these days I’m a bit more outspoken, I’m getting there somehow.
‘I’m just grateful for the way my family brought me up. My back is broad. I can handle the pressure.’
After winning the toss, England scored 99 all out in 19.5 overs with left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn (3-16), Sammy (2-13), Jerome Taylor (2-24) and Kieron Pollard (2-26) combining with solid out-cricket to limit England’s total.
Gayle’s shot-filled half-century, his 50 coming off 33 balls, and the 20-year-old Andre Fletcher (32 not out), then paced the Superstars to an easy win and immeasurable happiness for the pumped up group of West Indies cricketers.
‘Words cannot explain how Chris Gayle feels. I have never felt like this before in any type of match. The guys really turned up to the party tonight, we hit the England guys from ball one and you couldn’t ask for a better performance than this.
‘This is better than anything in the world. I tell you that straight up. I am happy for the guys right now,’ said Gayle, who will now prepare to lead the West Indies against Pakistan and New Zealand in international assignments over the next couple of months.
Gayle revealed that the first thing he would do with his money was ‘fix up my brother with a doctor so we can sort out his heart’.
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