The strapping Jamaican took just 30 balls to get to the three-figure mark, eclipsing Andrew Symonds 34-ball effort, as Royal Challengers Bangalore posted a T20 record 263 for five in their Indian Premier League match against Pune Warriors, riding on Gayle's breathtaking unbeaten 175.
The previous highest total by a team in this form of the game was 260 by Sri Lanka.
In all, he scored 175 off a mere 66 balls, leaving the opposition shell-shocked at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Gayle hammered an unprecedented 17 sixes to go with his 13 fours.
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By the time he had reached his century, 98 of Gayle's runs had come in boundaries (8 Fours and 11 Sixes). For the record, he consumed 23 balls to reach 150 from 100, which was the slowest of the three fifties, giving a fair indication of what he actually did to the clueless bowlers.
His strike-rate at the end of the innings was a staggering 265.15.
Barring Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Luke Wright, none of the bowlers were spared by Gayle, with Ali Murtaza and Mitchell going for 45 and 56 runs in two and three overs respectively. Aaron Finch was smashed for 29 runs in the only over he bowled.
Even as there was no stopping the Gayle-storm, A B de Villiers made 31 off just 8 balls.