By S Coward

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Feb. 24, 2015 – The West Indies Cricket Board has extended sincere congratulations to Chris Gayle, following his amazing double hundred that propelled West Indies to their second victory today in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, when they beat Zimbabwe by 73 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis Method.

Gayle was in record-breaking mood, smashing an incredible 215 off just 147 balls with 14 fours and 16 sixes before he was out off the last ball of the West Indies’ innings of 372 for two from their allocation of 50 overs in the Pool B match at Manuka Oval in the Australia capital of Canberra.

He became the first player to score a triple century in Tests, a double century in One-day Internationals and a century in Twenty20 Internationals.

Gayle’s 22nd ODI hundred surpassed Garry Kirsten’s previous best of 188 made against the United Arab Emirates in 1996. The 16 sixes equalled the record for the most in an innings.

“On behalf of the directors, management and staff of the WICB and the people of the region, I want to extend our heartfelt congratulations to the team for their emphatic win and Chris for his brilliant innings today,” said Chief Executive Officer of the WICB Michael Muirhead.

“It must be a great feeling for him to have achieved the highest score in the history of the Cricket World Cup. His performance, we are sure, helped to make the day of every West Indian, whether at home or abroad, fans of the game or not.”

Muirhead added: “He deserves every accolade that he receives following such an incredible innings. We know such an achievement does not come easily and we want to thank him for the tremendous effort he displayed.

“Now that he has accomplished such a feat, he has now set a high standard for himself and other members of the team to follow, and we are sure they’ll meet it or beat it in the coming weeks of the tournament! We urge fans to ‘rally hard’ around the team, as they set their sights firmly on winning the title.”

During the innings, Gayle reached the 9,000 run landmark in ODIs and is now second behind Brian Lara 10,405 in the West Indies all-time list. He also broke several West Indies records.

He surpassed Sir Vivian Richards’ 189 not out against England as the highest all-time score by a West Indies batsman, and his 181 against Sri Lanka as the highest score by a West Indian in the 40-year history of the World Cup.

Gayle added a world record 372 for the second wicket with Marlon Samuels, who made a career-best 133 not out, and took two wickets to complete a memorable Man-of-the-Match performance.

“We must also recognise the valuable effort from Marlon and the support he gave Chris from the other end in their World record partnership which contributed to putting us in a strong position in the match,” said Muirhead.

“Again, they showed the value of teamwork and is another fine example to the people of our region about how success can be achieved.”

Muirhead hailed the team’s performance in the tournament so far, recognising their commendable victory over Pakistan and today’s success, and that they have been able to post totals of over 300 in each of their matches.

“We urge them to keep up the good work,” said Muirhead. “They are the source of inspiration for West Indians of all ages by encouraging us to set goals that lead towards fulfilling our own dreams of achievement.

“We are always very proud of their individual and collective achievements. We know these things do not happen without a great deal of effort on the part of all the players, and we want them to know how much we appreciate their efforts.”

West Indies travel to Sydney on Wednesday, as they prepare to face South Africa at the famous Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday (11:30 p.m. on Thursday Eastern Caribbean Time/10:30 p.m. on Thursday Jamaica Time).

FULL SQUAD (with shirt numbers)

98 – Jason Holder (Captain)

7 – Marlon Samuels (Vice Captain)

62 – Sulieman Benn

46 – Darren Bravo

78 – Jonathan Carter

19 – Sheldon Cottrell

45 – Chris Gayle

33 – Nikita Miller

80 – Denesh Ramdin

24 – Kemar Roach

12 – Andre Russell

88 – Darren Sammy

54 – Lendl Simmons

50 – Dwayne Smith

75 – Jerome Taylor

SCHEDULE OF MATCHES

Monday, Feb 16: Ireland beat West Indies by 4 wickets – Saxton Oval, Nelson

Saturday, Feb 21: West Indies beat Pakistan by 150 runs – Hagley Oval, Christchurch

Tuesday, Feb 24: West Indies beat Zimbabwe by 73 runs (DL Method) – Munaka Oval, Canberra

Friday, Feb 27: vs South Africa – SCG, Sydney (day/night)

Friday, Mar 6: vs India – WACA Ground, Perth (day/night)

Sunday, Mar 15: vs United Arab Emirates – McLean Park, Napier

CRICKET WORLD CUP NOTES:

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Full details available here: www.windiescricket.com

Selected photographs – for Editorial use only – will be available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/windiescricket/

TIME NOTES

New Zealand: 17 hours ahead of Eastern Caribbean/18 hours ahead of Jamaica

Sydney and Canberra: 15 hours ahead of Eastern Caribbean/16 hours ahead of Jamaica

Perth: 12 hours ahead of Eastern Caribbean /13 hours ahead of Jamaica

IMAGE: www.in.com