Cricket icon Chris Gayle insisted Wiian Mulder ‘panicked and blundered’ by not attempting to surpass Brian Lara’s Test record.
South African skipper Mulder made the bold decision to declare when he was 367 not out in the second Test against Zimbabwe on Monday.
Mulder’s total was just 33 shy of West Indian legend Lara’s record of 400 not out, which he attained against England in 2004 and remains the highest score by any player in Test cricket history.
The Proteas went on to thrash Zimbabwe by an innings and 236 runs and had wrapped up victory by day three, meaning Mulder theoretically had plenty of time to surpass Lara’s figure and still allow his bowlers to skittle the opposition.
“I spoke to Shuks (head coach Shukri Conrad) – and spoke about letting the legends keep (that record),” Mulder said.
“Lara keeping that record is exactly the way it should be.”
But Gayle, who blasted 15 Test centuries of his own for the West Indies, would not have adopted a similar approach had he found himself in the same position.
Speaking on talkSPORT’s Hawksbee and Jacobs, Gayle said: “If I could get the chance to get 400, I would get 400.
“That doesn’t happen often. You don’t know when you’re going to get to a triple century again.
“Any time you get a chance like that, you try and make the best out of it.
“But he was so generous and said he wanted the record to stay with Brian Lara. Maybe he panicked, he didn’t know what to do in that situation.
“Come on, you’re on 367, automatically you have to take a chance at the record. If you want to be a legend, how are you going to become a legend? Records come with being a legend.
talkSPORTGayle did not agree with Mulder bringing an early end to his scintillating knock[/caption]“I think it was an error from his side, not to try and go to get it. We don’t know if he would go on and get it or not. But he declared on 367 and he said what he had to say.
“But listen, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to get 400 runs in a Test match. Come on, youngster, you’ve blown it big time!”
There may have been a school of thought that given the disparity between South Africa, the newly-crowned World Test Championship winners, and Zimbabwe, ranked 12th in the ICC’s Test rankings, somewhat lessened Mulder’s achievement.
But Gayle was at pains to point out the ‘opponent doesn’t matter’.
“It’s the same cricket, Test cricket,” Gayle said.
“Sometimes you can’t even get one run against a team like Zimbabwe, if you want to put it that way.
Gayle blasted nearly 20,000 runs across all three formats for the West Indies“It doesn’t matter the opponent, if you get 100 against any team, that’s a Test century. If you get a double or triple, 400, that’s Test cricket. That’s the ultimate game.
“Like I said, he panicked and he blundered, straight up.”
Although Gayle was unable to surpass Lara’s record during his career, he did come relatively close to doing so in 2010 when he scored 333 runs against Sri Lanka in a Test match.
But it was in the T20 arena where Gayle became an all-time cricket icon.
The 45-year-old holds the record for the most T20 centuries (21) and the highest score in T20 cricket, which was 175 not out for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2013 IPL.
Additionally, Gayle’s overall run tally in the format is more than a whopping 1000 than the next highest scorer.
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