Mumbai: Kings XI Punjab batsman Chris Gayle has made a huge impact on the race for Orange Cap in IPL 2018. Gayle scored the first century of IPL 2018 on Thursday. His 104* has taken him to no. 3 in the list of leading run scorers of this season.
He sits at no. 3 with 167 runs in just two innings.
Arguably one of the greatest exponents of T20 batsmanship, Gayle showed that he is far from finished en route his unbeaten 63-ball-104 that had 11 towering sixes and a solitary boundary.
Gayle’s 58-ball-hundred incidentally is the first of this edition of IPL and also against a bowling line-up that is being touted as the most balanced of all eight teams.
Gayle moved to 99 with his 11th six hit off Bhuvneshwar Kumar over long-off. In Siddarth Kaul’s next over, he dabbed the ball towards point to complete a quick single. As a mark of celebration, Gayle gestured rocking a baby in a cradle, with his wife and daughter in the VIP box.
The first 50 came off 39 balls and he took a mere 19 balls to complete the second 50.
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Kohli is at the top with 201 runs in 4 matches. He sits ahead of Rajasthan’s Sanju Samson (185 in four matches).
KKR batsman Nitish Rana is fourth on the batting list with 162 runs in 5 innings.
There are three KKR and three KXIP batsmen in the top-10 list of run-scorers.
Gayle’s teammates KL Rahul and Karun Nair also feature in the list of IPL 2018 leading run scorers.
IPL 2018- Race for Orange Cap: Here’s list of top scorers of Indian Premier League 11
| IPL Top Run Scorers | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Player | Team | Match | Innings | Not Out | Runs | Highest |
| 1 | Virat Kohli | RCB | 4 | 4 | 1 | 201 | 92* |
| 2 | Sanju Samson | RR | 4 | 4 | 1 | 185 | 92* |
| 3 | Chris Gayle | KXIP | 2 | 2 | 1 | 167 | 104* |
| 4 | Nitish Rana | KKR | 5 | 5 | 1 | 162 | 59 |
| 5 | Andre Russell | KKR | 5 | 4 | 1 | 153 | 88* |
| 6 | KL Rahul | KXIP | 4 | 4 | 0 | 153 | 51 |
| 7 | Dinesh Karthik | KKR | 5 | 5 | 2 | 151 | 42* |
| 8 | Kane Williamson | SRH | 4 | 4 | 1 | 146 | 54 |
| 9 | Evin Lewis | MI | 4 | 4 | 0 | 142 | 65 |
| 10 | Karun Nair | KXIP | 4 | 4 | 0 | 139 | 50 |
The Orange Cap is an award presented to the leading run scorer in the Indian Premier League. During the tournament, the top batsman gets the honour to wear this cap while on the field and the top-scorer at the end of the season wins an award.