BBC SPORT | Cricket | Easy for Gayle

Tour match, Pune. Day one of three. West Indies 297-2 (stumps) v Indian Railways.

Opener Chris Gayle smashed an aggressive 154 on Thursday as the tourists' top order enjoyed some batting practice in their warm-up match before the final Test in the series.

Gayle cracked 23 fours and two sixes in his maiden century of this tour, where West Indies have already lost the Test series 2-0.

Gayle 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.

India win Madras Test

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

Carl Hooper was rested for the match

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.

He reached 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.


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