Nostalgia cam: A Gayle-storm, a Ronaldo celebration, and a freakish co-incidence
The year was 2015, the opponents: the previous year’s finalists Kings XI Punjab, and the venue: the iconic Chinnaswamy stadium in the heart of Namma Bengaluru. The capacity crowd was about to be treated to something truly remarkable.
Upfront was the mouth-watering clash between Chris Gayle and Mitchell Johnson. Johnson wasted no time in unleashing a barrage of bouncers against Gayle, but Gayle was up for the battle. A 20-run takedown signalled the beginning of something very special. There was no stopping the Jamaican marauder on the day, as he put every Punjab bowler to the sword.
One only needs to browse through Gayle’s Instagram to understand the adoration he has for football star Cristiano Ronaldo. Back in 2015, when Ronaldo was playing for Real Madrid, he had scored an important away goal against Juventus in the semi-finals of the Champions League the day before and whipped out his famous “Siiii” celebration. When Gayle reached his century, he couldn’t help but pay tribute as he too pulled out the trademark Ronaldo pose in front of a raucous Bangalore home support. The moment goes down as one of the most iconic in RCB history.
Not only did RCB pummel their opponents KXIP by a massive 138 runs, but in the process managed to create a freakish Déjà vu moment. Four years ago in 2011, in this exact same fixture, Gayle had scored a century and S Aravind had taken 4 wickets to power RCB to a win. Cut to 2015, the wreckers-in-chief with the bat and ball for RCB re-emerged on this fateful day in 2015; a co-incidence played out over time that would give the writers of the Netflix series Dark a run for their money.
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