Gayle shows how it’s done

BENONI: West Indies opening batsman Chris Gayle showed he had fully recovered from hamstring trouble by smashing 145 in less than three hours against Easterns at Willowmoore Park yesterday.

Gayle struck five sixes and 17 fours in his 140-ball innings but a concern for the tourists was the lack of runs by other top-order batsmen. Carlton Baugh made 36 but only two other men hit at least 20 — tail-enders Adam Sanford and Ravi Rampaul. Sanford took both wickets to fall in the early stages of Easterns’ reply. Daren Ganga (10), Ramnaresh Sarwan (12) and Shiv Chanderpaul (2) fell by the wayside as Gayle made merry at the top of the order. With third Test centurions Brian Lara and Dwayne Smith resting, Easterns would have restricted West Indies to a poor score but for the brilliance of Gayle. After Baugh’s important runs, the prolific left-hander finally fell to Pierre de Bruyn in the 40th over of the innings. The other de Bruyn, Zander, was the most successful bowler with three for 52.