ICC T20 World Cup 2016: Chris Gayle attributes his century to practice

West Indies opener Chris Gayle set the ICC World T20 2016 on fire with an unbeaten hundred and became the only man to have scored two centuries in the World T20 history. The buccaneering left-hander smashed the hapless England bowlers all over the park to guide West Indies to a thrashing victory over England. Gayle attributed his stupendous knock to rigorous practice and preparation in the run-up to the mega-event.

"The preparation has been really good, it's all about practising and then doing it in the middle," Gayle said after his swashbuckling century took the Windies to a comprehensive six-wicket win.

Gayle also became only the second batsman after New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum to score two T20 international hundreds. He also added that the flat pitch aided his stroke-play.

"The pitch was flat and dew played a part as well. After facing the first over I took a while to get back on strike, but Marlon helped ease the pressure. The guys who play the IPL know it's a good wicket so we knew we always had a chance to chase it down," he said.

Gayle’s big hitting comes to the show

Gayle also pointed out that they wanted to stay ahead of the run-rate and he was very pleased to have finished the game off himself and did not leave the task of finishing on the others.

The gigantic West Indian opener also revealed a fact that it was his teammate Sulieman Benn who spurred him on by saying “entertain me”. Well, the knock would have surely entertained not only Benn but millions of viewers too.

The left-hander also said he is looking forward to the next game against Sri Lanka in his ‘hometown’ Bangalore. The opener plays for the Bangalore franchise in the Indian Premier League and enjoys tremendous local support over there.

Lauding the efforts of Gayle, West Indies skipper Darren Sammy said, “It's always fun watching Gayle.” Sammy also acknowledged the efforts of another West Indian batsman Marlon Samuels for the way he played in the powerplay and took charge early. He was also quite happy to have the restricted the England side to nine-an-over and he felt that they didn’t let England get away with the game.

A dejected England captain Eoin Morgan felt it was Gayle who made the difference in the match. He conceded the fact that they were unable to take the game away from the West Indies. He added that the West Indies did a commendable job by not allowing his team to get going on a really good batting surface.

While batting, England seemed to lack a power hitter. Almost everyone had a start but failed to make it big for the English side. On the other hand, the Windies planned their chase quite well as Samuels never allowed the asking rate to climb by hitting boundaries during the powerplay. Gayle then took over and set the tournament ablaze with his devastating stroke-play. The boys from the Caribbean have surely started the tournament on a high.