'I don't think our bowling was outstanding. I certainly think we bowled with little bit of aggression early on, when he (Gayle) did face very little in the Power Play. But when he did face, the balls were quite attacking'
England skipper Eoin Morgan gave credit where it was due, stating that Chris Gayle's ‘skill level was quite up’, on the night when the burly West Indian tormented the English bowlers in their opening ICC World T20 fixture on Wednesday.
Gayle smashed a sensational unbeaten century, studded with 11 towering sixes, to singlehandedly take the West Indies to a comprehensive six-wicket victory over England at the Wankhede Stadium, in Mumbai.
"Yes, he certainly did what he does. He was outstanding today in conditions probably that favoured the bat a lot more than the ball. We could have been better by the way we executed our skills I think. But when he got in he didn't give us any chances, and took on our bowlers," Morgan said.
Chasing a challenging 183 for victory, the West Indies romped home in 18.1 overs on the back of Gayle's bludgeoning innings.
En route his match-winning effort, the Jamaican brought up the fastest century in World T20 (off just 47 balls), and bettered his own record (a hundred off 50 balls), set in 2007.
"I don't think our bowling was outstanding. I certainly think we bowled with little bit of aggression early on, when he (Gayle) did face very little in the Power Play. But when he did face, the balls were quite attacking. I think he played Adil (Rashid) particularly very well," he added.
When quizzed about their plans to stop Gayle, Morgan said, "There are number of plans to stop him (Gayle). Obviously, we bowled short to him for a while, he countered that. He is a very difficult batsman to bowl to, like you have mentioned. He plays a couple of dot balls but also has the ability to take any of our bowlers down, just in one over. Tonight his skill level was quite up.
"Our plans were very good and execution of them was all right. But he is a world class player, he played really well tonight."
"Everybody knows how he plays and he has played for a very long time. And that's just the way he plays. Coming into this game, if he did get himself in, we did expect that. We have played against him before where things worked in our favour but today it was his night," England's captain added.
England put up 182 for 6 after being put in to bat, and their skipper termed the total competitive but at the same time said the side would have liked to post 200 on the board.
"We would have liked to post 200 on the board. At no stage we really got going; guys who got in really could not get away from the West Indies. I thought they showed a little bit of experience with the ball in the end overs and little bit smarter against us. I think we would have liked 200, but 180 was competitive," he said.
