KL Rahul reveals what ‘angry and hungry’ Chris Gayle told him about ‘finishing’ Rashid Khan during IPL match

On his day, which comes most of the time, Chris Gayle can be a nightmare for bowlers in T20Is. You name any T20 batting record and the opener has it all. And he does this mostly with a stoic expression and sometimes with a smile but almost never in anger.

Chris Gayle’s IPL teammate KL Rahul was, hence, aghast when he saw an ‘angry and hungry Gayle talking about destroying Rashid Khan in an IPL game.

The India cricketer KL Rahul was talking about the Kings XI Punjab vs Sunrisers Hyderabad gamme in IPL 2018 during which the West Indies opener scored his 6th IPL hundred to take KXIP to vicrory.

KL Rahul who opened with Gayle in the match, stated that Gayle had made up his mind to go after Rashid Khan as he did not like the spinner glaring at him.

“I remember one instance in 2018, he (Chris Gayle) was hungry, he was angry, and he wanted to win. We had a match against the Sunrisers, and he told me, ‘If Rashid Khan comes on, I am gonna finish him because I don’t like a spinner coming and staring me down. If he stares at me, I am going to finish him’,” KL Rahul said in a conversation with Mayank Agarwal and Gayle on Open Nets with ‘Mayank’ chat show posted by IPL on their website.

Furthermore, KL Rahul said that Gayle asked him to give the strike as he wanted to attack Rashid Khan, who was SRH’s main bowler along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

“He (Gayle) said, ‘Give me the single, I want to play six balls against Rashid Khan’. And I think that’s the first time I saw Chris’ give-me-this attitude. He had a clear plan and I think he got a hundred that game,” said Rahul. “You can just tell when he is in the zone.”

Chris Gayle had scored 102 off 63 deliveries taking KXIP to a total of 198/3. like promised Gayle had destroyed the spinner, smashing him for 42 off 16 deliveries at a strike rate of 262.50.

Rashid Khan, whose economy rate is around 6 runs per over in IPL, had figures of 1 for 55 in that particular game. Kings XI Punjab won the match with 15 runs.

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