Gayle becomes eighth player to score 300 or more in IPL 2018

PTI

Chris Gayle became the eighth batsman to score 300 or more in IPL 2018 on Friday.

Ahead of Punjab's game against Mumbai at Indore, Gayle was on 252 runs in 4 matches, and continuing his great run with the bat he scored a 40-ball 50 to reach the 300-run mark.

With his third fifty in his fifth match to go with a century, the big West Indian joined the likes of Ambati Rayudu (391), Rishabh Pant (375), Virat Kohli (349), MS Dhoni (329), Kane Williamson (322), Shane Watson (317) and Shreyas Iyer (307).

Gayle boasts a scintillating batting average of 100.66 and in that department, he is way ahead of the rest of the above names with Chennai captain Dhoni being closest to him at 82.25.    

All of Gayle's competitors have played more games than him as he wasn't played by Punjab at the start of the season. Later he also opted out of one game so as to take a rest. 

Gayle's innings was cut short by Ben Cutting as Suryakumar Yadav took a skier at deep mid-wicket in the 12th over.

Earlier in the day after being put into bat by Mumbai in Punjab's adopted home for the rest of the season, Gayle and Lokesh Rahul added a blistering 54 in 6.4 overs. The partnership was broken by spinner Mayank Markande as JP Duminy took a simple catch at deep midwicket. Lokesh made 24 off 20 balls.  

Punjab made three changes ahead of the game bringing in Yuvraj Singh, Marcus Stoinis and Axar Patel. Mumbai, meanwhile, dropped Kieron Pollard in favour of fellow West Indian Evin Lewis. 

The match is extremely crucial for Mumbai because another defeat today will bring an end to their play-off hopes. Punjab, on the other hand, will look to strengthen their position in the top half of the table with five wins in seven matches.