Gayle cracks 154 against Railways

Opener Chris Gayle returned to form with a swashbuckling 154 as West Indies amassed 297 for two wickets on the opening day of a three-day tour match against national champions Indian Railways on Thursday.

The left-hander cracked 23 fours and two sixes in his maiden three-figure score on the tour of India, where West Indies have already lost the three-Test series 2-0.

But Gayle's knock at the top of the order would give them a boost ahead of the third and final test in Calcutta from October 30 to November 3.

He shared a 71-run stand for the first wicket with Wavell Hinds (50) and a mammoth 225 for the second with Daren Ganga, who was unbeaten on 66 at close of play.

Stand-in captain Ridley Jacobs had won the toss and elected to bat first on a flat wicket which promises to offer some assistance to spinners later in the game.

West Indies rested Carl Hooper, left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul and paceman Mervyn Dillon.

Hinds got the team off to a flying start but the scoring rate came down after off-spinner Kulamani Parida struck in his opening over

Parida had Hinds caught at slip by Jacob Martin with a ball that drifted in and then left him after pitching.

Gayle took over after lunch, hitting a flurry of boundaries against Parida and Tejinder Singh before getting his century with a vicious pull to mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Murli Kartik.

Gayle fell just before stumps when he played inside the line to seamer Harvinder Singh, the ball going on to clip his off bail.

Ganga, making his first appearance on the tour after being drafted in to replace the ill Brian Lara, staked his claim for a test slot with a fluent half-century.

The 23-year-old Trinidadian took his time to get off the blocks, but stuck lusty blows in the latter half of the day, including some exquisite late cuts to the point fence off the spinners.

Mail Cricket Editor