Chris Gayle becomes first cricketer to score 10,000 runs in T20

RAJKOT: Swashbuckling West Indian batsman Chris Gayle today became the first cricketer to score 10,000 runs in T20 cricket during the IPL match between his side Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Lions here.

Gayle, who came into the match with just three runs short of the landmark, reached to it when he took a single off Lions pacer Basil Thampi in the fourth over of the RCB innings. He went on to score a characteristic 38-ball 77 in his 290th Twenty20 match to tally to 10,074 runs.

The 37-year-old towering Jamaican, who was playing in his 285th Twenty20 innings, has a batting average of 40-plus in the shortest format of the game with 18 hundreds and 61 half centuries. His strike rate is nearly 150 and his highest T20 score is a 175.

Gayle is no doubt a giant of a cricketer in the T20 format. The difference in run aggregate between Gayle and the next-highest in the T20s -- Brendon McCullum (7524 runs from 272 matches) of New Zealand -- is 2550.

The difference between the number of sixes hit by Gayle (743) and the next-highest in T20s -- Kieron Pollard (459) -- is 284.

Gayle, who made his international debut in September 1999, has not announced retirement from Test as well as ODI cricket though he has not played either format in more than two years. He last played a Test match in September 2014 against Bangladesh. His last ODI was in March 2015 against New Zealand in Wellington.

Gayle has scored 7214 Test runs from 103 matches at an average of 42.18, with 15 centuries and 37 half centuries. He has played 269 ODIs from which he has scored 9221 runs at an average of 37.33 with 22 hundreds and 47 fifties.

He has also scored 1519 runs from the 50 Twenty20 Internationals he has played.