Chris Gayle roared back to form in the very first match that he played in this IPL. He scored 53 against Royal Challengers Bangalore to help Kings XI Punjab win a crucial game. He scored his fifty at 41, becoming one of the oldest players in the history of the IPL to score a fifty.
In the process, he has defied age and has proved that it is just the class of players that matters in this game of cricket and everything else are just secondary. While many say that this format is for the youngsters, experience has time and again come handy. They have scored the runs and picked wickets to win matches for their team.
Top 5 Oldest Players to Score a Fifty in IPL History:
1) Chris Gayle (41 years and 24 days)
Gayle made a comeback to the IPL in Punjab’s match against RCB. In a must-win game for the Kings, Gayle scored 53 off 45 and added a 93-run stand to help Punjab win the game. Gayle at one point in his innings was on six from 14 balls.
Gayle launched an assault on Mohammad Siraj and Washington Sundar in the middle-overs. He scored 44 runs off the next 22 balls, bringing up his half-century in just 36 balls.
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2) Adam Gilchrist (41 years and 181 days)
The former Australian wicketkeeper-batsman, Adam Gilchrist, played for two franchisees in the IPL, Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab. He scored 85* off just 54 deliveries, playing for KXIP in IPL 2011with 10 fours and three sixes against the likes of Zaheer Khan, Muttiah Muralitharan, and Vinay Kumar.
He was awarded the Man of the Match as his knock helped Punjab to chase down 175 against RCB. He scored 2069 runs in 80 innings at a healthy strike-rate of 138.89 in the Indian Premier League. He even led Deccan Chargers to thei maiden IPL title in 2009.
3) Rahul Dravid (40 years and 116 days)
Former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid scored 53 against Delhi Daredevils in 2013 to help his side win a crucial game for Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Man Singh stadium. He along with Ajinkya Rahane added a 108-run stand to set up the chase, which was finished by Shane Watson (28*).
Rajasthan chased 155 in that game without any fuss with Dravid playing anchoring the innings. He played for RCB and RR in the IPL scoring 2174 runs in 82 innings at a strike-rate of 115.52.
4) Sachin Tendulkar (39 days and 362 days)
Sachin Tendulkar scored 54 against Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2013, in Delhi’s Firoz Shah Kotla stadium which was the name of the stadium then. He hit three fours and two sixes in his innings and added 96 runs with Rohit Sharma. Sachin scored 2334 runs in 78 innings at an average of just a shade under 35 and a strike-rate of 120.
Tendulkar remains the second oldest Indian player to have scored a half-century in the IPL.
5) Michael Hussey (39 days and 360 days)
Michael Hussey scored 56 off 46 deliveries in the second qualifier between CS and RCB in Ranchi in 2015. He anchored the 140-run chase to perfection on a pitch, that proved to be difficult for the other batters to bat on. He hit three fours and two sixes in his knock.
Hussey won 12 Man of the Match awards in the eight years that he played in the IPL. He scored nearly 2000 runs at an average of close to 38 and strike-rate of over 122 playing for CSK and MI.
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