Chris Gayle dives towards his left, the ball lobs slightly up in the air ricocheting from his left palm, he sticks his right hand up with his body still up in the air and holds on to the catch – a dream sequence for any cricketer let alone Gayle, who is not known for acrobatic stunts isn’t it? Nope, it happened in broad daylight when Gayle took one of the best slip catches in recent memory in the Global T20 League final.
Gayle, leading the Vancouver Knights, left his mark on the final with his brilliant reflex catch. In the 14th over of the West Indies B innings, Australian leggie Fawad Ahmed enticed Kavem Hodge with a loopy leg-spinner. The right-hander rocked on the backfoot, but the drift allowed the ball to dip and turn catching Hodge off guard. It took the outside edge and Gayle, standing at first slip, had to adjust quickly because of his initial movement towards left. The gigantic left-hander did a splendid job first to get a hand to the ball and then to hold onto it with his outstretched right hand.
Gayle could not inflict any damage with the bat but he had already done his bit by holding onto the sensational catch.
His team, Vancouver Knights ended up winning the inaugural edition of Global T20 League by beating West Indies by seven wickets. Saad Bin Zafar’s unbeaten 48-ball 79 helped the Knights to take the game home with 15 balls to spare in reply to West Indies B’s 145 all out in 17.4 overs.