ADELAIDE, Australia, CMC – West Indies coach David Williams has glorified Chris Gayle’s brilliant century in the second Test against Australia yesterday and described it as “an unbelievable innings”.
Gayle batted for 20 minutes on Sunday evening and all day yesterday’s fourth day to end on 155 not out as the Windies closed on 284 for eight – an overall lead of 296 — going into a potentially tense final day today at the Adelaide Oval.
“This innings by Chris was unbelievable. He’s a very determined guy,” Williams said. It was Gayle’s 11th Test century and his first against Australia as he showed great patience and determination.
So far, he has batted for close to seven hours and faced 271 balls, hitting 16 boundaries and a six.
It is his sixth hundred outside of the Caribbean, fourth as captain and third for the year.
This year’s other centuries were 104 against England in Jamaica in February and 102 in the same series in Trinidad when the West Indies won the Wisden Trophy.
His other century as captain was a back-to-the-wall 197 against New Zealand in Napier a year ago, which spanned eight hours.
“Look back at Chris over the last year or so, he’s played extremely well in Test cricket and has led the team very well,” Williams said.
Gayle’s superb knock, Williams believes, has also given the West Indies a chance of winning the Test match and squaring the three-match Frank Worrell Trophy Series. Williams also tipped beanpole left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn as a big threat to the Aussies on a difficult last-day pitch.
“It is a very difficult track to score on. It was evident in the way Chris played. He doesn’t normally play like that. This Test match is going to be very important for us. We don’t want to go to Perth still one-down so we’re going to do everything in our power to try and win this one. We may take a gamble at times but this Test match is very important for us,” Williams said. “Before we came to Australia there were a lot of critics and people said a lot of ill things about the team, but I think this performance is probably going to change some of those minds. Hopefully we can go on and win the match,” Williams added.
The final Test match in the series starts December 16 in Perth.
